[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 108 (Friday, September 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H7638-H7640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1530
         REBUILDING COMMUNITIES DEVASTATED BY HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the emergency 
supplemental appropriations for hurricane disaster relief. The $10.5 
billion that we have acted upon today will be a downpayment, and we 
must recognize it as such, a downpayment on a much longer-term 
investment that we will have to make to restore the communities 
devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
  I commend the leadership, majority and minority, of both the House 
and the Senate, for this timely response, as we did in reacting to the 
attacks of September 11, 2001. I especially appreciate the persistence 
of our minority leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), 
in pressing for action by Congress this week, not waiting until after 
return from the Labor Day recess.

[[Page H7639]]

  The massive disaster unfolding before the Nation's eyes on television 
has both statewide and personal dimensions. In my family, it is very 
personal. My wife, Jean, is a member of the third generation of a long-
standing New Orleans family. Her brothers, Charles and Edward 
Denechaud, live there, their homes inundated by water, perhaps 
irretrievable. Jean's classmates and dearest friends, still in New 
Orleans, all are experiencing inexpressible loss.
  My heart goes out to our House colleague and our colleague on the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, my good friend, the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), whose home in Mississippi is 
devastated, just kindling, and to the former majority leader of the 
Senate, Trent Lott, a good friend of mine, whom I have known since he 
came to Congress. His home, likewise, was devastated.
  It shows that the hurricane respects no status and no condition of 
existence, but has treated rich and poor, famous and infamous, alike, 
terribly, drastically; that recovery will take years and most damage 
will be irreparable because of the destructive effects of water 
standing for days, perhaps even weeks, and toxic polluted water at 
that.
  There are inspiring stories of humanitarian response, such as my good 
friend from Duluth, a businessman, Jeno Paulucci, who has sent 
truckloads of thousands of bottles of desperately needed water to the 
disaster area.
  I want to put this issue in another context, a larger context, of 
natural disasters in the United States. Over the last 20 years, from 
1980 through 2000, this Congress has appropriated $35 billion, 
$35,668,000,000 to be exact. Insured losses totaled an additional $115 
billion, for a total of $150.6 billion in FEMA-insured disaster 
assistance for hurricanes and earthquakes and other similar tragedies.
  But what is most striking is that the period of 1993 through 2000, in 
just 7 years, the figure is $28.4 billion in disaster assistance. It 
suggests that we are going to continue to see disasters of enormous 
proportions, increasing in cost and intensity over the years ahead.
  The city of New Orleans is divided into 13 levee districts by the 
Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection from the Mississippi 
River to the south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north, as well as 
protection from hurricane and storm damage from frequent smaller-scale 
storms. Two portions of these levees failed, for reasons yet unknown, 
during Hurricane Katrina, which has caused significance flooding of six 
of the levee districts and minor flooding of the remaining seven.
  Once the water entered the Orleans Parish, the flood waters from Lake 
Pontchartrain were able to move through the streets to other portions 
the city relatively quickly; and the Corps of Engineers, as soon as the 
breaches are sealed, will be able to begin pumping the water at a rate 
of one-half inch of water per hour.
  In addition to levee protection, the City of New Orleans also 
contains a system of pumping stations which enable the City and the 
Corps of Engineers to dewater portions of the city when necessary. 
However, the lack of electricity in the City and surrounding regions 
has made the majority of these pumps inoperable, further complicating 
the issue of flooding in the region.
  Currently, the Corps of Engineers is attempting to perform two 
tasks--to close up the two breaches in the levee system, and to restore 
power to the City to operate the pumps. Once the breaches have been 
sealed, and the pumps are operable, the Corps expects that it can 
dewater the region at a pace of roughly \1/2\ inch of water per hour. 
The Corps may also purposefully breech non-vital sections of the levees 
surrounding the City to aid in the dewatering process.
  The Corps has had difficulty, thus far, in sealing the existing levee 
breaches due to a height differential in water levels between Lake 
Pontchartrain and the City. (As of September 1st the lake levels in 
Lake Pontchartrain were 1 to 2 feet above normal, but falling at a rate 
of 0.05 to 0.10 feet per hour.) Recent reports suggest, however, that 
these levels are coming into equilibrium, and once that occurs, the 
Corps will have an easier time of repairing the breach.
  As of September 1st the Corps reports that it has contracted with a 
pile driving operation to insert new piles in the breech openings, and 
is continuing to use sand bags to halt the flow of flood waters. The 
Corps is beginning with the 17th Street Canal and will then move to the 
London Avenue Canal.


       Support for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

  As part of the National Response Plan, the Corps is executing 
missions in the areas of ice and water delivery to regional warehouses, 
emergency power assessment and generation, debris, removal, emergency 
roofing repair, temporary housing, and the unwatering of the City of 
New Orleans. The total value of the Corps mission assignments is $135 
million. A total of 505 Corps military and civilian personnel are in 
support of the FEMA missions. The 249th Engineer Battalion (prime 
Power) his 44 soldiers deployed and has initiated emergency power 
assessments of critical facilities.


 Current Status of the Mississippi River and other Ports (as of August 
                                 31st)

  The Mississippi River is open from the Sea Buoy to Mile Marker 507 to 
tug and barge traffic only. Deep draft ships may move within anchorages 
if they have pilots on board., The GIWW is open from Mile Marker 177 
(west of Harvey Locks) to Mile Marker 89 (east of the Harvey Locks).
  The Ports of Mobile, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Pensacola, Destin/Panama 
City are closed. All bridges, floodgates and locks are closed in 
vicinity of the Port of New Orleans.
  New Orleans and Mobile District crews are surveying the river from 
New Orleans to ocean (New Orleans) and the GIWW (Mobile).
  Corps hopper dredge WHEELER is standing by in New Orleans ready to 
dredge as necessary. It is enroute to Head of Passes today.
  Corps Dustpan dredge Jadwin is underway from Vicksburg to be ready 
for any dredging requirement.
  Industrial Canal not open due to bridges being underwater, locks are 
operational with--auxiliary generators.
  Baptiste Collette channel will be surveyed and dredged to offer 
alternate route around industrial Canal.
  Port Fourchon will be surveyed and channel dredging, clearance of 
debris and vessels will be evaluated to ensure support vessels to 
offshore oil industry.


       President's Budget Request for the Army Corps of Engineers

  In March, as the Subcommittee prepared an analysis of the President's 
budget request for the Corps of Engineers for fiscal year 2006. In this 
analysis, the Subcommittee highlighted the President's failure to 
adequately fund the Nation's water-related infrastructure, including 
the infrastructure constructed and maintained by the Corps.
  The Subcommittee concluded that the administration's budget request 
failed to recognize that continued investment in the Nation's water-
related infrastructure is a key element for simulating and improving 
the U.S. economy, as well as protecting the lives and livelihoods of 
those living in flood prone areas, alleviating the potential for 
tremendous economic and personal hardship.
  The passage of time and years of inadequate funding for maintenance 
and replacement of Corps projects have taken a toll on the Nation's 
water related infrastructure, minimizing the utility of many projects, 
and setting-up the possibility for catastrophic failure of essential 
navigation linkages or flood protection projects.
  While it is too soon to know what caused the failure of the levee 
system surrounding the City of New Orleans, the question remains, did 
the levee fail due to lack of proper maintenance or deterioration, and 
could this failure have been avoided with increased maintenance funding 
for the Corps of Engineers?
  The administration's budget request for fiscal year 2006 marked the 
fifth attempt in as many years to cut funding for the Corps. This 
pattern of shrinking budget requests and repeated attempts to under-
fund the Nation's premier water-related infrastructure agency, reflects 
a lack of commitment to addressing the economic, ecological, and 
humanitarian needs of the county.
  In the fiscal year 2006 request, the total budget request for the 
Corps was 10 percent less ($527 million) than the appropriation for 
fiscal year 2005, The greatest single programmatic cut was in the 
construction account, which was down 11 percent ($207 million), with 
all on-going construction projects (with the exception of dam safety 
projects) facing a reduction or elimination of funding, This account 
includes funding for small flood control projects under existing 
authorities--a program that has been heavily subscribed in recent 
years,
  In relative terms, the greatest percentage cut proposed in the 
President's budget was to the General Investigations account, which 
proposed a 34-percent reduction ($48,7 million), This significant 
reduction would prevent the Corps from initiating or completing future 
project recommendations, and is part of the administration's stated 
objective to reduce the backlog of under-funded projects by slowing the 
rate of addition of newer projects,
  Finally, and most troubling, was the administration's proposal to cut 
funding for vital operations and maintenance at Corps projects by

[[Page H7640]]

6 percent, or $119,8 million, Facilities in the Corps' inventory are 
rising both in number and in age, This translates into a need to devote 
greater resources to protect the taxpayers' investment, and to make 
necessary engineering and technological improvements where necessary, 
Last year, the Corps' own estimates noted that the budget request for 
operations and maintenance would need to increased by 50 percent to 
addressed delayed maintenance that is vitally needed, and will only 
cost more in the long term,
  Without vital maintenance, Corps facilities run the risk of 
catastrophic failure, as may have been the case with the New Orleans 
levee system,


 The Water Resources Development Act and Coastal Louisiana Restoration:

  In July, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2864, the Water 
Resources Development Act of 2005, This legislation included an 
authorization for the first stage of the comprehensive restoration of 
the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA).
  The LCA includes about 30 percent of the Nation's coastal marshes, 
but about 90 percent of the coastal land loss in the lower 48 States is 
occurring in this area. Over 1 million acres of the Louisiana coastal 
area have become open water since the 1930's. Another one-third of a 
million acres could be lost in the next 50 years unless corrective 
actions are taken.
  The Louisiana coastal wetlands exist in the interface of the 
freshwater from coastal rivers including the Mississippi River and the 
saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico. This area once included more extensive 
marsh and barrier islands that served as a protective zone and buffered 
the effects of large storms that would otherwise severely damage inland 
areas. This natural protective barrier has been severely reduced. There 
are thousands of oil and gas wells along the coast with an associated 
network of pipelines and channels causing salt-water intrusion into a 
fresh water environment, destroying thousands of acres of coastal 
wetlands, and increasing the process of land subsidence and coastal 
erosion.
  In addition, the flood control and navigation projects that keep the 
Mississippi River in a single channel have cut off the freshwater and 
sediment flows that historically created the coastal marsh where the 
river has overflowed its banks. Channelization of the Mississippi River 
has also increased the velocity of the water, depositing sediment off 
the Continental Shelf rather than distributing it along the deltaic 
plain. This funneling of nutrient-laden sediment through a single river 
channel has also exacerbated a hypoxic condition (dead zone) in an area 
of the Gulf of Mexico.
  There is approximately $100 billion of critical energy, 
transportation, and industrial infrastructure in the Louisiana coastal 
area that is at increasing risk from storm damage if coastal erosion 
continues unchecked. This includes major ports on the Mississippi 
between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Port Fourchon, a major port for 
offshore oil and gas exploration, 1,806 miles of navigation channel, 
42,000 oil and gas wells and 4,200 miles of pipelines, 2,500 miles of 
highways, several of the Nation's largest oil refineries, and over 
300,000 acres of agricultural lands.
  In the 1990s, the Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the State 
of Louisiana, designed a comprehensive project for the long-term 
reversal of the loss of coastal wetlands in the State. This project, 
estimated to cost approximately $20 billion over the next 30 years, was 
designed to restore thousands of acres of coastal wetlands by diverting 
water and sediment from the Mississippi River into the coastal areas of 
Louisiana, attempting to mimic the deltaic forces which originally 
created this region. In addition, the project would attempt to build 
upon the successes of the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection and 
Restoration Act, CWPPRA, though a continuation of rebuilding strategic 
barrier islands and other coastal protections to provide further 
protection of the coastal region.
  The Water Resources Development Act of 2005 authorizes the first 
installment of the LCA project, called the LCA Near-Term Plan. This 
plan, estimated to cost approximately $2 billion over 10 years, would 
authorize the first five major projects of the longer term plan. In 
addition, this authorization would establish a process for the 
development of other future critical projects for the protection, 
conservation, and restoration of the coastal Louisiana ecosystem, as 
well as the selection of demonstration projects, and projects for the 
beneficial use of dredged material to test innovative technologies, 
models, and methods which may prove valuable in the future.
  For the LCA Near-Term project, the cost share of constructing 
environmental restoration projects is 65 percent Federal, 35 percent 
nonfederal. The non-federal partner for this project is the State of 
Louisiana.


              Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration program

  In 2000, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved 
legislation to create the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration program. 
This program, established within the Environmental Protection Agency, 
EPAA, and modeled under the National Estuaries Program, was designed to 
restore the ecological health of the Basin by developing and funding 
restoration projects and related scientific and public education 
projects.
  The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration program focuses on water 
quality concerns within the Lake, and not hurricane and storm damage 
reduction projects, which are performed by the Corps. However, as the 
Corps begins to dewater the City of New Orleans, the issue of water 
quality may be a concern because of the pollutants, such as domestic 
sewage and toxic chemicals, contained in the flood waters that will 
need to be discharged back into the Lake.

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