Tuesday, December 20, 2011

West Bank Residents To Get Third-Party Army Review

That outside inspection will be of the levees in New Orleans:

Corps of Engineers agrees to third-party review of levee work

The Army Corps of Engineers agreed Monday to arrange a third-party review of West Bank levees after an inspection found logs, a hot water tank, a shopping cart and other debris in a levee south of Marrero.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he secured the commitment from two key New Orleans corps officials, Commanding Officer Ed Fleming and Chief of Engineering Walter Baumy, during a meeting in his Metairie office Monday.

Vitter said he asked that the West Bank levees be made part of the agency’s Peer Review Program to ensure that planning, design and construction of the levees were done appropriately and, where there are problems, that remedies are developed.

West Bank residents were obviously very worried about the extensive debris — literally piles of junk — found in the levees and it’s concerning that there could be much more still be to be found,” Vitter said. “We can’t tolerate any more negligence when it comes to our levees, something that has unfortunately been the norm for the corps for a long time.”

Vitter said he’s glad the corps leadership agreed to a “full third-party review and oversight.”

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