Protecting New Orleans

"Design News presents a comprehensive look at the rebuilding efforts undertaken and asks if the giant hydraulic pumps were really flawed, or if the pump manufacturer and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received a "bad rap."

Neither more and/or bigger pumps and higher levees can provide a fail-proof guarantee against a future and more disasterous flooding than that occasioned by Hurricane Katrina.

Anyone building or occupying a flood plain can rest assured that a time will come when it will be submerged. Levees and pumps can only postpone the day of reckoning.

Or float the city on a BIG BARGE.

Hi S,

"Neither more and/or bigger pumps and higher levees can provide a fail-proof guarantee against a future and more disasterous flooding than that occasioned by Hurricane Katrina."

You are correct that there's no fail-proof guarantee and floating the city on a barge, while maybe a good idea, is simply not going to happen in our lifetimes. Concerning the "bad rap" situation, it looks like there's more than enough blame to go around.

Here is an excerpt from Matt McBride's blog regarding MWI (Moving Water Industries) and their record of reliability(?) regarding their pumps. MWI manufactures the pumps that exhaust water from the canals, etc.

"The idea behind raising the hydraulic reservoirs is to pull hydraulic fluid from lower in the reservoirs, preventing entrained air from entering the delicate Denison hydraulic pumps and wrecking them. MWI's original scheme (the one which has been in existence up until last month) was to pull hydraulic fluid off the top of the reservoirs, working against gravity and guaranteeing air would get trapped in the inlet lines to the Denison pumps. This wrecked Denison pump after Denison pump. Considering that the scheme has been in operation up until last month, it is a strong possibility there are now wrecked Denison pumps on the skids, a conclusion reached in the internal investigation (see my commentary on internal recommendation #1 below).

The new scheme raises the reservoirs and reworks the piping and hoses between the reservoir and the Denison pumps, with the hydraulic fluid coming out of a point lower on the reservoir (hopefully the very bottom, but that's not clear).

They've started raising the reservoirs with Orleans Avenue for some unknown reason (I would have thought 17th St and London would be far more urgent, since those floodgates gates are intended to be dropped long before Orleans). All of the Orleans Avenue reservoirs appear to be raised.

17th Street does not have raised reservoirs on any of the original 12 pumps, as of June 20 (the six newer pumps came with raised reservoirs last year). Considering how much importance the Corps puts on 17th Street - every major press availability is held there, and it's the only site the Corps took the GAO when they visited, not that it mattered to the GAO - you'd think they would have started there."

Looks to me like MWI screwed up by also not modifying the 17th street pumps.

MWI insists that siphoning the oil from the top is more efficient and maintainable than taking oil from the bottom of the tank and having a shutoff valve in the line to provide for service. However, from the above excerpt it makes me wonder why they would be so adamant about their oil intake method.

I'm not sure just how the A.C.E. fits into the politics of the failed pumps though.

Regards,

-John

Johnjohn The gov't reports all sound similar as if they had been written by a Philadelphia lawyer with a Technicians degree in engineering and intent on obfuscating any thing andeverything to the point no one could understand what had happened.

Thanks for comment. SS

There are no guarantees, but it helps when you don't sabotage yourself by saying their is going to be a day when a big one comes, it is self fulfill prophecy. Jerry

Hi Guest,

Why would just saying "there's going to be a day..." etc. be a self fulfilling prophecy? How does that sabotage oneself?

-John

Stirling Stan,

"Anyone building or occupying a flood plain can rest assured that a time will come when it will be submerged. Levees and pumps can only postpone the day of reckoning."

Not only is it on a flood plain, but most of the City is BELOW SEA LEVEL!!!

Sounds like the ideal place to build a city for half a million people...