Orleans Levee Board
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From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board was the body in charge of supervising the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana which is intended to protect New Orleans from flooding. Over the years the Board has also taken on various activities relating to land use on and around the levees.
The Orleans Levee Board was a major governmental entity that functions independently in and around Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Orleans Parish is coextensive with the city of New Orleans. The function of the agency was to protect the greater New Orleans area from flooding and to protect and operate the equipment placed and assigned for that purpose. The board had placed its imprimatur upon and asserted control over such things as far afield as casino gambling [1] and municipal recreational marinas, as these are tied to land use on and near the city's levees. Some critics of the board have charged its members with being more concerned with such lucrative subsidiary activities than with their primary assigned task.
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[edit] History
The Orleans Levee District was created by the Louisiana legislature in 1890 for the purpose of protecting the City of New Orleans from floods. At the time, communities along the Mississippi River were largely in charge of creating their own levees to protect themselves, as no unified levee system existed. Most neighboring Parishes had (and some still have) similar Parish levee boards.
In 1924, the state legislature authorized the levee district's Board of Commissioners ("the levee board") to acquire 33,000 acres (130 km²) of land on the east bank of the Mississippi River about 50 miles south of New Orleans in order to build the Bohemia Spillway between the River and the Gulf of Mexico. 1924 La. Acts 99. Approximately half of this land was public property transferred from the state; the other half was either expropriated or purchased under threat of expropriation from private owners according to a legal finding. 1928 La. Acts 246; 1942 La. Acts 311.[2]
In the aftermath of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the United States Congress gave the United States Army Corps of Engineers supervision and control of design and construction of flood control throughout the Mississippi Valley. Local levee boards remained, however, in charge of day to day inspection and maintenance of the levee systems in their areas.
In the 1934 New Orleans Lakefront Airport opened on land dredged from Lake Pontchartrain by the Levee Board. The airport was originally named "Shushan Airport" after Orleans Levee Board president Abraham Lazar Shushan; it was renamed after Shushan's indictment for corrupution in the Louisiana Scandals.
In the wake of Hurricane Betsy in 1965, a project was initiated to make sure that the city's levees and flood walls could withstand a direct hit by a hurricane of at least Category 3 intensity.
The Orleans Levee Board remains an old institution that shuns publicity and openness in a state that has seen its share of corruption. In a 2002 lawsuit against the Board, they admitted to raising and spending their own capital funds through businesses they control including gambling.
From the Levee Board's Legal Statement at trial:[3]
- "With regard to the more general question of the levee district's budget, the Orleans Levee District receives very little funding from the state. The levee district generates its own revenues from the Lakefront Airport, a casino, leases of property, fees from boatslips and marinas, and taxes. The district also receives income from various investment accounts currently worth $57 million. The levee board does not dispute these facts. At oral argument, counsel for the levee board pointed out that the district receives some state funds, even though they are usually in the form of capital outlays dedicated to specific projects. Because the state funds are already earmarked for other purposes, the state monies cannot be used to pay a judgment against the levee district. See Hudson, 174 F.3d at 688-89."
[edit] The Levee Board and Hurricane Katrina
On Tuesday, August 30, 2005 the Orleans Levee Board was at the center of the greatest crisis ever to face the City of New Orleans when in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina multiple levee breaches in the Industrial Canal, 17th Street Canal, and London Avenue Canal resulted in the flooding of some 80% of the city. The resulting flood is believed to have caused over 1,000 deaths, destroyed or severely damaged homes, businesses, and property in the majority of the city, and contributed to the emergence of lawlessness, looting and murder within the city of New Orleans.
Investigations after the disaster revealed that the levee and flood wall system was apparently mis-designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and that the inspections by the board were perfunctory at best. As of December 2005, legal investigations of possible criminal negligence are ongoing.
[edit] Governmental Reform
In the aftermath of the flooding, there have been calls for the elimination of the Orleans Levee Board and other local and regional boards. During a special session of the Louisiana Legislature, a bill was passed into law by Sen. Walter Boasso (R-Arabi), which consolidated the levee boards of various parishes between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The law creates two new regional levee boards (Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East and Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - West Bank), separated by the Mississippi River.
The Orleans Levee Board ceased to exist on January 1, 2007.
