Tim Doody has his hands full right now trying to seat an independent review panel to look at leaks on the 17th street drainage canal that failed catastrophically during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans.

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Mark Twain once said about editors—“ I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.”

The same might be said about Tim Doody, president of the eleven-member Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East in New Orleans. He might well be asking himself the question Twain posed in terms of his appointment to the local levee authority.

Doody has held the volunteer post since July 2007. He makes it clear right off the bat that he is not an engineer, but a CPA and director of the Chaffe McCall law firm.

Doody has his hands full right now trying to seat an independent review panel to look at leaks on the 17th street drainage canal that failed catastrophically during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans.

Image: New seepage near 17th Street Canal on Tuesday

In March of this year, The New Orleans Times Picayune summarized comments from an outside engineering expert from California who addressed the 17th Street Canal leaks. “Water persistently seeping out of the 17th Street Canal near the repaired levee and floodwall indicates serious flaws in the design, not only of that levee section but of much of the multibillion-dollar 100-year hurricane protection for the region,” the Times reported. The newspaper referred to comments made by University of California-Berkeley civil engineering professor Robert Bea.

The local levee authority has ownership of both the flood control and river control levees in the parishes in New Orleans. But, the USACE (Army Corps) has responsibility for the new construction on the 17th Street Canal.

“I have been in touch with the American society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and finally compiled a list of fifteen names of truly independent engineers who have not worked for the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),” Doody said in a phone conversation. He has to find three engineers from that list who are willing to examine what is a happening along the levee bank where water has been bubbling to the surface along the repaired breach since at least March 2008.

Doody also made it clear that he takes his post very seriously.

"I truly feel a sense of duty in serving on the board - I lost my home, along
with my family (all have relocated) as a result the hurricane, " Doody said.

Corps engineers maintain that the seepage is not cause for alarm.

Randall Cephus, press officer for the New Orleans USACE, came out to the levee with us to take some more photos of the bubbling water, which appeared to have increased in flow since Sunday. Cephus came out on short notice.

Image: Randall Cephus PAO USACE and Sandy Rosenthal of levees.org

When asked what the USACE planned to do about the situation, Cephus said that the Corps did not want to disturb the ground around the three points of flowing water, since it would essentially “taint the investigative work” of the planned review board.

We noted that direct access to the leaks had been reinforced with a double padlock—installed since our initial visit and report two days prior. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) was in New Orleans on Monday, and after Levees.org mailed her photos of the leaks and ducks swimming in pooled water on road nearby, Landrieu’s office said that the Senator would be in contact with the New Orleans Corps office to make sure they were addressing the issue.

The Corps subsequently sent an investigative team out to the site and determined that the flowing water from the three points was brackish, meaning the points have a salt-water component and were definitely coming from the drainage canal.

PAO Cephus provided a detailed diagram of the new levee construction, as well as the water reports.

Engineer H.J. Bosworth who works with the New Orleans watchdog group, levees.org indicated that the new construction is the “best possible” design after we showed him the diagram. Bosworth speculated that part of the problem might be in the fill material used to backfill the levee wall, but had no way to know for certain. Water will find a way through any porous material, especially if vegetation such as sticks or branches provides a channel, he said.

Bosworth's detailed comments are as follows:

I am sure the folks that just had their communities flooded up river from us wish that their government had spent a few more dollars and had constructed a few miles of T-walls around them instead of the levees that failed to protect them. The technology is not new. Too often, the Corps opts for levees to save money rather than asking Congress for enough funding for reliable and stable concrete structures.

As for the ducks, they were gone (fate unknown), and Cephus took his own photos of the pooled water. He was uncertain whether the correct duck area had been tested originally. A water test did come back on Tuesday that indicated water pooled on the road where the ducks were was not brackish and could possibly have come from a leaking water main. We rechecked the duck area.

On a Lighter Note—Cheney responsible?

On a lighter, note, and those living in New Orleans could certainly use some levity—we received a tip from The New Orleans Levee that Dick Cheney was behind the disappearing ducks and levee leak, but we have been unable to confirm that report.

The bottom line in this report from New Orleans is that residents will have to wait for the review panel for more answers.

Authors Website: http://www.georgianne-nienaber.com

Authors Bio:

Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online Quill Magazine, the Huffington Post, The Ugandan Independent, Rwanda's New Times, India's TerraGreen, COA News, ZNET, OpEdNews, Glide Magazine, The Journal of the International Primate Protection League, Africa Front, The United Nations Publication, A Civil Society Observer, Bitch Magazine, and Zimbabwe's The Daily Mirror. Her fiction expose of insurance fraud in the horse industry, Horse Sense, was re-released in early 2006. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey was also released in 2006. Nienaber spent much of 2007 doing research in South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was in DRC as a MONUC-accredited journalist, and was living in Southern Louisiana investigating hurricane reconstruction and getting to know the people there in 2007. Nienaber is continuing "to explore the magic of the Deep South." She was a member of the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and is a current member of Investigative Rorters and Editors.