Faulty Pumps? Corps of Engineers? AGAIN??
Gee whiz, golly! The Corps installed faulty pumps in New Orleans to make up for their failed levees! Everyone who is surprised please raise your hands…
Yup, thought so.
From Yahoo News via the AP wire:
NEW ORLEANS – The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet
‘s promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The Churchillian verbiage of the infamous Speech at Jackson Square continues to prove that talk, no matter how lordly, is cheap. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, the US seems to have declared war on the city. Granted we have our own batch of lackwits running the show, but the Federal efforts seem almost deliberately geared towards stamping us out under the guise of assisting us.
We lived here because we were told by the Army Corps of Engineers that it was safe within certain parameters. That was a lie. The Cat 5 part of the storm ht the MS gulf coast and obliterated it. The winds that hit New Orleans were clocked at Cat 2, one level below what the levees were supposed to be rated for. They failed. “Act of God, ” try “Act of Man.”
So our supposed protection, promised before last hurricane season has been provided by these pumps:
The pumps failed less-strenuous testing than the original contract
called for, according to the memo. Originally, each of the 34 pumps was
to be “load tested” — made to pump water — but that requirement for all
the pumps was dropped, the memo said.Of eight pumps that were load tested, one was turned on for a few
minutes and another was run at one-third of operating pressure, the
memo said. Three of the other load-tested pumps “experienced
catastrophic failure,” Garzino wrote.
What is it going to take for pink slips to start being issued? Or even better, we make it law that members of the Corps, politicians, and mebers of the Levee Board have to live in house that back directly up to the levess.
This is not simple dishonesty, these are people’s lives! Something has got to give, we need a serious change in the way these people are paid, contracted, and held accountable for works that directly affect the lives of an entire city.
One of my favorite little details, one I will end on, is about the company that made the pumps (a company that still got 80% of the mony for the job). They have *GASP*connections to the Bush family:
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 case has yet to be resolved.Because of the trouble with the New Orleans pumps, the Corps has
withheld 20 percent of the MWI contract, including an incentive of up
to $4 million that the company could have collected if it delivered the
equipment in time for the 2006 hurricane season.
xposted on HumidCity, DefendNOLA, LJ New Orleans, Powers and Morrison
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Those BASTARDS! I used to have a great respect for the Army Corp of engineers. But I know how contracts can be fixed and when the money flows but the pumps don’t you know what they really care about.
(Feel free to use that analogy lame though it is)
The Corps are a relic from the 50′s when there was implicit faith in man’s mastery of nature. I think these days we should have a bit more realistic view.
As to the Bastards part, they should all have to live next to the levees. I’ll bet that would make them a bit more concerned about their responsibiities…
If you are truly interested in the “truth” here are the facts:
“We lived here because we were told by the Army Corps of Engineers that it was safe within certain parameters. That was a lie. The Cat 5 part of the storm ht the MS gulf coast and obliterated it. The winds that hit New Orleans were clocked at Cat 2, one level below what the levees were supposed to be rated for. They failed. ‘Act of God,’ try ‘Act of Man’.”
First, the Corps of Engineers warned the inhabitants of New Orleans that a large enough hurricane with a high storm surge would efeat the leeve system. In fact, in 1965 the USACE propared plans and got funds budgeted for improvements to the entire storm defense structure protecting New Orleans. The Corps was prevented by the courts from proceeding with these necessary improvements. Again, in the 1980′s the USACE again presented revised plans to protect the City of New Orleans from storm flooding. Again the US Congress funded the project, and again the court stopped the necessary improvements. If wish to blame someone for the Katrina flooding of New Orleans, blame the correct villan – the Democrat environmentalists that sued the Corps to prevent the needed improvement.
Additionally, the Democrat demoninated City Council of New Orleans and its Orleans Levee District have spent tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, supposedly in strengthing the city’s levee system. Perhaps an audit of where the money went over the last 30 years might be illuminating. BTW, the winds’ category of a hurricane is meaningless when comes to the potential of a hurricane to flood an area. Far more important is the overall size of the storm; the time it takes to pass-over a given location; the tide conditions at the time of the hurricanes passage; the tidal surge carried by the hurricane; and the rainfall generated by the hurricane. In these key areas, Katrina was a “Perfect Storm.”
The casualties caused by Katrina were directly related to the poor prepare and execution of the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana government. If I am not mistaken, the chief executive of New Orleans and Louisana were both Democrats. As a comparison, the State of Florida was hit by three large hurricanes the year after Katrina. Even being pounded by three category 3 and 4 storms, Floridians faired much better than the citizens of New Orleans. As I recalled the chief executive of Florida was none other than the Republican, Jeb Bush. Also, as you implied the Mississippi Gulf Coast took the brunt of Hurricane Katrina. The damage was catasthropic. However, the recovery in the State of Missisiippi is substantial ahead of that of New Orleans. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that the chief executive of Mississippi is the Republican, Haley Barbour.
“President Bush ’s promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.”
In order to build and install 34 – 60″ pumps in the 5 months alloted after the USACE bid award for this contract, it was necessary to expedite much of the standard engineering and testing associated with manufacturing process of pumps. This short lead time also dictated the type of pumps required to meet the June 1st, 2006 deadline. Conventional axialflow linestaft pumps requires substantial civil works for proper installation and alinement. On the other hand, hydraulically driven axialflow pumps can be installed with minimal or no civil works. A look at the existing pumps that failed during Katrina will demonstrate the extent of civil works, such as pump stations required house the pump drives and prime movers. With hydraulic pumps, drives and prime movers can located away from the rising water, out of harms way, as they are connected with hydraulic lines. The civil structure to house 34 convential axialflow pumps allow the levee and canal systems of New Orleans would have required years to construct, and would have cost 3 or 4 times the cost of the installed hydraulic pumps. The reason MWI was selected to supply the pumps and specs for this project was the were the ONLY PUMP MANUFACTURER to build a 60″ hydraulically-driven axialflow water pump.
The so-called USACE “expert” had never seen a 60″ hydraulically-driven axialflow water pump before visiting the MWI plant in Deerfield Beach, FL to inspect the pumps in process.
“Gee whiz, golly! The Corps installed faulty pumps in New Orleans to make up for their failed levees! Everyone who is surprised please raise your hands…”
The major problem causing pump failures was a $2 spring in the hydraulic pumps supplied by the American manufacturer on large hyraulic pumps and motors that were used in the pumps for this project. This manufacturer, along with engineers from MWI trouble shot the problem, determined the cause (the undersized spring) and retro-fitted the proper sized springs for the hydraulic pumps in the field. Virtually all the pumps were mission capable shortly after they were delivered to New Orleans. Other problems were the infamous intake bells, that left off these axialflow pum ps, against MWI advice, in order to simply the installation of these huge water pumps. According to the General in charge of the US Army Corps of Engineers the MWI pumps installed in New Orleans ar “rocking”!
“Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps.”
The pumps marketed by Bush-El were not MWI pumps, but were handpumps manufactured in Nigeria by a Nigerian Company which was jointly owned by MWI and their Nigerian Representative. These pumps are primarily used for third-world village water supply. The reason MWI and Jeb Bush got involved in this project was to attempt to help solve the critical potable water supply experienced by billions of rural people in the developing world, a problem that is theleading cause of death and disease to the rural populations in Africa, Asia, and South America.
“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 case has yet to be resolved.”
I suggest you get a copy of the charges in the DoJ complaint against MWI, it is available on-line. MWI is charged with falsifying paperwork presented to Eximbank concerning shipment of pumps and agricultural equipment to Nigerian State government by failing to identifying the regular commission paid to its representative of nearly 20 years as payment to an irregular agent. The case was originally brought as a “whistle blower suit” in the 1990′s by an employee who quit his job with MWI and sued over differred income. At the time, this employee was employed by one MWI Florida competitors. The so-called had nothing to do with the Nigerian Market and sales, and he had never even been in Nigeria.
If you want the truth, I suggest you go beyond the partisan spin being spewed by the Mainstream Media looking for a crime that doesn’t exist.