Friday, May 13, 2011

Warshed away?

From yesterday's press event

2:46 p.m. Susan Macclay of the West Bank levee district says her agency, like its east bank counterpart, is monitoring the levees 24 hours a day.

She describes three areas of concern: an old stretch of levee in Algiers Point that was under improvement when the river started rising that now is off-limits; a section of levee in Oakville in Plaquemines Parish that was temporarily lowered as part of construction and has been fortified; and a section of levee in the Todd Shipyard that is lower than adjacent sections and where, if the river gets to 18 feet, the levee district may have to install Hesco baskets.


Actually it's the batture they're worried about in Algiers. Varg has a picture.

I sort of remember the development on that space being controversial a few years back but I can't quite recall the circumstances.

Anyway, historically speaking, this isn't all that unusual. The river has been creating and reclaiming land along the batture forever. And the property rights to that land have long been points of contention. See this linked excerpt from Richard Campanella's Time and Place in New Orleans for the most frequently cited example of this.

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