by Christopher TidmoreU.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu led a group of Louisianians back to the Netherlands over the last month, and returned with a new mission, to create an integrated “water management” system based on the Dutch model, as opposed to the levee-centric system that the Army Corps of Engineers utilizes now.
Landrieu said of the Corps flood control operations, “We have a military model that is out of date, building levees when we should be managing water.”
As the Senator outlined in a conference call with reporters on Friday morning, "The Corps was formed was to tame the Mississippi. They were formed to build levees...We have to move from a building levees model, to a managing water model...We live in a time of rising sea levels." Relying on levees alone will not be enough, she maintained.
The American model of flood control “is unsustainable” The Dutch have built a sustainable model that includes everything from land reclamation, to interior canals integrated with the landscape, to flood control. “There’s is a sustainable model…and they get more bang for their buck."
"They decided to organize their engineers and architects together,” Landrieu explained. Their model “integrates the flood control system into the landscape." Instead of building a simple wall at the 17th Street Canal, there are retaining pools throughout the communities that can capture several feet of water in heavy rains are flooding. And, they are built to look attractive, so they have recreational and agricultural uses when not serving a flood control purpose.
The problem with the way that South Louisiana and the Army Corps constructs flood protection reminded the Senator of a conversation she had with a Dutch engineer. "He explained, ‘The problem in America is you treat water like a drowning man, we treat it like a marathon runner.’"
The root of the problem, Landrieu said, is that to most Americans flooding is a minor distraction. "For us it is life and death."
"We must accelerate and take up several notches the model of infrastructure we have in this state." For those who say we cannot afford it, "I say we have no choice to afford it."
It is not as some have suggested as if "the country cannot afford for us to leave" and relocated 2.1 million people. Someone has to man river structures, agriculture, petrochemical industries.
Then, Landrieu, answering critics who say ‘move away’, said, "We are not going to shrink our footprint. We are going to expand our footprint. And, we are going to do it on the Netherlands model."
Many traveled with the Senator to the Netherlands , including New Orleans City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, Bob Turner of the new consolidated levee boards, and two representatives of Levees.org. But the most vocal fellow traveler was Greg Rigamer of GCR Consulting.
He told The Louisiana Weekly and Bayoubuzz.com, "One of the things I found very impressive about our trip...The Dutch rely a complete approach. They integrate smart management with flood control and architecture. It is a holistic method...We do many of the things the Dutch do, but we do it in an independent manner."
Landrieu expanded the thought. "Since Katrina, you can imagine the people that have been traumatized." The result has been a call for many different solutions for flood protection. Some say we need higher levees, others more wetlands, others more protection. What Landrieu argued was the GulfCoast needs all of the above, but integrated into a common plan so the elements of the flood control system works together.
This could actually be cheaper than what Louisiana is doing right now. She pointed out the Dutch “budget of construction for the whole country was two billion dollars. We are spending fourteen billion in Orleans Parish alone."
"That's the scale of the work, which is hard for the national media to get their heads around...My goal is to get this reconstruction done right in a new model that actually has a chance to work."
"They reclaimed as much land as triple Lake Pontchartrain ,” she said, “We're retreating from the sea, the Dutch are reclaiming it."
The Army Corps of Engineers refuses to focus on other areas of the problem, she argued, following their historic charge to build levees and dredge rivers. That frustrates Landrieu. Speaking of the Corps, the Senator said, "I'm tired of dragging people kicking and screaming...And that is exactly the problem. We are no longer going to drag people kicking and screaming."
Whether the Corps is willing to change remains to be seen, Landrieu admitted. “President Obama is in the process of creating a new leadership team...And, I'm going to hold my views until we are informed...From where I am right now, it is doubtful...It depends how much the Corps is willing to change." A new governmental method to contrast flood control systems may be needed, she stated.
Greg Rigamer added that government local, state, and federal must look at more than “structural solutions.” That was the main lesson the Dutch taught the Senator and her traveling companions.
Integrate the flood control everywhere, Landrieu said, explaining the Dutch method in a single phrase. As she noted, "If you come to New Orleans , you cannot go one block without seeing a canal...We have hundreds, maybe thousands, of canals and bayous. It's not just the Mississippi river . In everybody's back yard, there is a ditch to catch water."
The Dutch method is this idea writ large. Build levees, of course, but construct more and better watch catch basins throughout local communities.
"We rely on the Corps to build levees on the Mississippi…What the Dutch do, when it rains alot...They will drain that water into retaining lakes in their community and they become part of the landscape, part of the architecture of the community."
Learning to live with the water becomes a societal imperative. "They integrate recreation” along the pools and canals, turning outlets for flood control into resources for everything from boating to agriculture. This has a property and community value. "Your land becomes more valuable, because you are living on it, but you are living on safely."
“All throughout South Louisiana , we have to figure out a better way for our canal system to operate.”
"This has ascetic potential,“ the Senator outlined. Canals can look better than drainage ditches, and can become as part of this reconstruction model as "natural" waterways that people can also use for light boating and agriculture, increasing land values.
Landrieu cannot give a total amount, but she admitted her initiative will cost billions. "But," she added, "We are already spending billions...We can build safe, sustainable, and clean."
Moreover, this is a model that lets communities grow as they need. “ New Orleans and South Louisiana can expand,” with such an integrated water management system.
“Americans are not going to retreat from their coasts. “Protection can be done safely and cleanly." Expanding beaches, barrier islands, natural sand dunes all are flood control methods that the Corps generally ignores. "Yes, you can live along the coast of the United States , if you have the right protection.”
In the Netherlands , she said "Their major airport, one the largest in the world, is twelve feet below sea level. It is unthinkable for the Dutch to move that airport, so they protect it."
It just requires many layers of internal structures that can be both beautiful and useful. Landrieu even told a story of how Swans used the ponds as living areas, creating a physical impression beyond flood protection.
“I believe I have found a great model that will protect the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast…The Dutch model is engineering for guaranteed security…The system we have in South Louisiana is unsustainable...It is literally a 'patch and pray' system…Their protection, protects most of their people, is for a storm, one in every 10,000 years. Ours is to protect from one every one hundred years."
It’s important to note how similar the Netherlands are to us, she explained. "While they are much smaller, they are much like the GulfCoast ." Holland has more people than South Louisiana , 16 million at last count, but in confronted with the same type of delta, geography. “They drain much of Europe, we drain much of the United States ."
Yet, the massive flooding the country endured in the 1950s, over 60% of their country, led the Dutch to think creatively in ways our experts have not even considered four years after Katrina.
Like Louisiana , the Senator noted, "The Dutch have identified a steady stream of revenue,” to build their flood control system “based on their revenues from their natural gas exploration."
"We have made some similar progress since Katrina; 37.5 percent of the revenues that come out of the GulfCoast are dedicated" to coastal restoration and flood control, a bill Landrieu authored in the last Congress.
The next step, she said, "We are going to start with a series of hearings” in which Landrieu hopes to educate her fellow Senators on opportunities that Dutch model presents.
It fits in, she maintained, with President Obama's "thinking outside the box" as well as "fits very well into" a long term sustainable model that could help not only South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, but other flood zones like South Florida, South Georgia, The Sacramento Valley of California--and even New Jersey.
Ultimately, Landrieu knows such a system cannot be some bureaucratic command and control method. She envisions “a decentralized system with higher accountability." There are stronger planning tools in the Netherlands "than we can have here." "But what I envision is a decentralized tool" that empowers local communities.
Landrieu must have stopped at one of the famed cafes in Amsterdam had some mind expanding ‘herbal browines’ or something….. Community pools to catch water? New Orleans has a community pool capable of ‘capturing’ several feet of water, it is called Lake Ponchatrain…… The New Orleans area has several canals integrated throughout the community, they are called things like the harvey canal, the MRGO, the Elmwood canal, the Inner harbor navigational canal, the Berg canal, the Jahnke canal, etc., etc., etc. on and on and on… Then little Mary goes on and says; “budget of construction for the whole country (I guess she is talking about the Netherlands) was two billion dollars. We are spending fourteen billion in Orleans Parish alone." I have a little news flash, the dutch have been building dykes and canals since 1410……… I would hope that here at this day and age, it being almost 2010 or in other words some 600 years later they (the dutch) would sort of have gotten a handle on the situation by now…. And it wouldn’t require as much money to maintain or improve as it does over here in the New Old World………….. Duhhhhhhhh Mary, just plain old duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. And when it comes to thinking outside the box or the biggest bang for the buck, I am pretty sure that is covered on the website @ STRONGCONCRETE oh well, down here we can lead a horse to water, it doesn’t really mean anything though because it is too distracted looking at the other horses on the other side of the fence….. Written by
on 6/6/2009
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How does the "design surge height" for the 10,000 year Dutch storm compare to that of the Louisiana 100 year "design surge height"??
How to other design parameters compare???
I understand the Dutch storm situation is not as severe as the Louisiana one....
Would be interesting to describe where the Dutch went to learn more about pump technology about 100 years ago......
Written by HeidiHoe
on 6/6/2009
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by Christopher Tidmore
