They finally fixed the pumps

Just in time to decommission them.

Now all the pumps at the mouths of the outfall canals in New Orleans use stainless steel, corps spokesman Ricky Boyett said.

That came just in time for the corrosion-resistant replacements to be irrelevant, as the temporary pumping stations will be shut down and disassembled when the permanent ones start up.

The permanent stations, which employ bigger, sturdier pumps, will be operated by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. That agency is in charge of the rest of the complex network of levees, floodwalls, floodgates and other structures protecting the metro area.

The annual maintenance cost for the permanent pumps is estimated between $4 and $5 million. (Assuming they really are rust-proof this time.) It's not clear to me exactly how that's going to be funded now.  In an unrelated but similar matter, the West Bank Authority has a millage proposal on the April 28 ballot in Jefferson Parish to help it take care of the infrastructure over there.

Anyway, the Lens article about the new pumps is worth a look.  It recaps about a decade of McBride's work criticizing the Corps.  For a lot of us, it's quite the trip down memory lane.  I was especially glad to see them bring up the Jeb connection to MWI. 

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment.

The Bushes really set the tone for the neo-liberal rebuild of New Orleans early on.  People with short memories like to pretend we only entered the kleptocratic phase of our crumbling empire the day Putin followed them on Twitter or whatever.  But, really, this is the normal story of our entire lifetimes.  And, on most days, you don't have to go very far past your own flooded street to see it.