Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Paying for the Pumps
Posted by David Winkler-Schmit on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 6:12 PM
Yesterday was a good day for moving forward on pump stations, but it might not turn out so well for New Orleans taxpayers.
While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state and local officials signed an agreement Tuesday and gave a green light for constructing permanent pump stations at the three Lake Pontchartrain outfall canals, paying for the maintenance and operation of the stations remains a concern.
Orleans Sewerage and Water Board will be responsible for operation and maintenance costs, estimated at $10 million annually by S&WB director Marcia St. Martin, according to the Corps’ Col. Robert Sinkler. His comments came during a New Orleans City Council meeting in December, and the council’s response wasn’t encouraging:
“They’re already broke,” Councilwoman Shelley Midura, adding it didn’t seem fair to place the burden on S&WB.
Councilmember At-Large Arnie Fielkow told Sinkler that SW&B does not have an additional $10 million in its budget to accommodate the maintenance and operation costs. Fielkow, who sits on the board for SW&B, said the money would have to be raised through a property tax millage increase.
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Comments (1)
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Those pumps really are the future of New Orleans. We'll sink or swim based on their design. I'll say this: if they fix the weakest spots on the London and 17th Street Canal, and build good pumping stations at the lake, that may be a minimally acceptable fix that I could live with. I wouldn't like it and Option 2 would be vastly superior, but it would have to do. BUT, there would be no margin for error for the usual Corps fuckups (like debris in the floodwall repairs). They'd really have to be perfect on their end. And I don't want to hear them blaming a contractor, either. They'd better be monitoring their contractor staff, because they're ultimately responsible for protecting the region. New Orleans would have to grin, bear it, and raise taxes to pay for the maintenance of a second set of pumps. Not pretty, but worth it to live in New Orleans...
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