S. HRG. 109–1032 OVERSEEING THE ONGOING REBUILDING AND RESTORATION EFFORTS OF HURRICANE AND FLOOD PROTECTION BY THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 18, 2006—NEW ORLEANS, LA Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://access.gpo.gov/congress.senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 42–276 PDF WASHINGTON : 2009 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri MAX BAUCUS, Montana GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut LINCOLN CHAFEE, Rhode Island BARBARA BOXER, California LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JOHN THUNE, South Dakota HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York JIM DEMINT, South Carolina FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia BARACK OBAMA, Illinois DAVID VITTER, Louisiana ANDREW WHEELER, Majority Staff Director KEN CONNOLLY, Minority Staff Director (II) CONTENTS Page APRIL 18, 2006—NEW ORLEANS, LA OPENING STATEMENTS David, Vitter Hon., U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana ........................... 1 WITNESSES Drennen, Mark C., president and ceo, Greater New Orleans, Inc. ..................... 25 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 62 Dufrechou, Carlton, executive director, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation 35 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 73 Response to an additional question from Senator Jeffords ........................... 74 Hitchings, Daniel H., P.E., Regional Business Director, Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ............................................................ 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 49 Responses to additional questions from Senator Jeffords ............................. 51 Jackson, Thomas L., P.E., F.ASCE, D. WRE, past president, American Society of Civil Engineers and senior vice president, DMJM Harris (Ret.) ................. 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70 Kerner, Timothy P., Mayor, Town of Jean Lafitte and vice president, West Jefferson Levee District, Jefferson Parish, LA .................................................. 23 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 Link, Lewis E., Ph.D., director, Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force ...................................................................................................................... 32 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 63 Responses to additional questions from Senator Jeffords ............................. 67 Rousselle, Benny, president, Plaquemines Parish Government .......................... 21 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 56 Response to an additional question from Senator Jeffords ........................... 57 Smith, Hon. William Clifford, member, Mississippi River Commission, Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ............................................................... 19 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 53 Woodley, Hon. John Paul, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ............................................................... 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43 Responses to additional questions from Senator Jeffords ............................. 47 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL Statements: Heerden, Ivor van, Ph.D. Head, State of Louisiana Forensic Data Gathering Team Director ....................................................................................................... 89 Mlakar, Paul F., Ph.D., P.E. Senior Research Scientist, U.S. Army Research and Development Center ..................................................................................... 84 Nicholson, Peter, Ph.D., P.E. Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Graduate Program Chair ....................................................... 96 Resonthal, Sandy, Founder Levees.org .................................................................. 79 Seed, Raymond B., Ph.D. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering ... 80 (III) OVERSEEING THE ONGOING REBUILDING AND RESTORATION EFFORTS OF HURRI- CANE AND FLOOD PROTECTION BY THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2006 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, New Orleans, LA The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m., Lou- isiana Supreme Court, Supreme Court Chambers, 400 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA, 70130, Hon. David Vitter presiding. Present: Senator Vitter, Senator Landrieu, and Representative Jefferson. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA Senator VITTER. Good morning. I want to thank all of you for being here. I thought this field hearing of the Senate Committee, which has oversight and responsibility over the U.S. Army Corps of Engi- neers, was very important, particularly as we are approaching the next hurricane season, which starts in early June. Clearly, since Katrina and Rita, all of us at the Federal level have had our hands full in terms of emergency levee and other hurricane protection work. Constant oversight and communication with the corps has been a very important part of this. So this hearing is a continu- ation of that ongoing communication and oversight. Katrina was an enormously devastating and significant event, as everyone knows. It was the largest natural disaster in the Nation’s history, unparalleled in so many ways. In addition, it truly was a man-made disaster, because major catastrophic flooding in New Or- leans also occurred because of levee breaches that were related to serious design flaws. I think that last point is particularly important as we move for- ward. We have to move forward to correct those mistakes through proper design, engineering and oversight. But we also need to do it in a very quick, expedited way, knowing that the next hurricane season is right around the corner. So again, that’s what this hear- ing is all about. We have several panels, and I am going to run through the out- line of the hearing briefly, then we will get to our first panel. Panel one of three panels is composed of representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in particular, the Assistant Secretary, civilian (1) 2 leader of the corps, and Dan Hitchings, the Director of Task Force HOPE, which is all of the emergency levee and related work fol- lowing Hurricane Katrina. We will hear from them and have dialog and questions about the progress and the status of that ongoing work. Panel two is comprised of four representatives from impacted areas, folks in the immediate area of southeast Louisiana, who serve in various capacities, who live in all of these impacted areas. I will introduce them individually when we get to that panel. And panel three is composed of outside, independent engineering and environmental experts. Personally, I think one of the most impor- tant lessons of Katrina, particularly as it relates to levee work and the Corps of Engineers, is that we all need to come together and bring whatever outside, independent expertise is possible to bear on this ongoing work in an efficient way. Too often, in my opinion, the corps has been insulated and isolated in terms of some of their processes and work. And this independent expertise is crucial in order to build consensus and get things done right. I believe it is being built into the process in at least an informal way with regard to various studies that have been going on since Katrina. And there are many, many different studies. Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the American Society of Civil Engineers to convene an external review panel to provide independent oversight. In addition, there is the IPET, which is the direct study author- ized by the Army and by the DOD. Then there are many other out- side, independent groups, environmental and engineering groups, that have done oversight, unofficial oversight, if you will, and brought their expertise to bear. As we move on, I believe it is essential to systematize that out- side, independent expertise, to make sure it is built into the proc- ess and organized in an ongoing way. And panel three will rep- resent three significant outside and independent experts to talk about how we move forward in that way. With that overview, let’s start with our first panel. This first panel is the Corps of Engineers, specifically the Honorable John Paul Woodley, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the civilian leader of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Mr. Daniel Hitchings, Director