Feds Seek Info On Enviro Levee Suits

The Left is in a Rove-anoia tizzy over this item:

Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Daily Kos and others think the email is evidence that "the administration's 'blame game' has shfited." I don't think that's what the email is about, but even if it were, it is not a game when environmental groups put thousands of lives at risk fighting levee and other flood control improvements, all for the sake of something fishy or fuzzy. It is very real, and if blame is due, it's due.

Here's what I think the email is really about. As the feds start to consider the massive reconstruction ahead, they have to also consider the possibility of environmentalist lawsuits. On numerous greenie sites, there are arguments about bringing back the mudflats, swamps and icky goo of the Mississippi Delta, and to do that, you can't be dredging and building levees. Here are a couple such references:

"On the heels of Hurricane Katrina, when there is widespread distrust as to whether government can protect the public, it is vital that we have in place mechanisms to hold government accountable. There are right ways and wrong ways to design a highway or even build a levee. By ensuring that there is good science and local input, the government is much more likely to get it right." Sierra Club

"Katrina also exposed the fiction that we can dredge, bulldoze and fill millions of acres of coastal wetlands without paying a price. Wetland ecosystems are Mother Nature's perfect buffer against catastrophic storm surges. Destroy that buffer and you destroy the last line of defense, not only for New Orleans but for a host of other American cities." Natural Resources Defense Council

These statements are clear indications that Big Green will stand in the way of rebuilding New Orleans with the sort of protections it needs. Facing a commitment from President Bush to rebuild the city on the one hand, and these thinly veiled threats of litigation on the other, the Justice Department is correct to initiate research into what kind of lawsuits they can expect, and how to defend against them.

By the way, it is illegal to "dredge, bulldoze and fill millions of acres of coastal wetlands" without a permit. And those permits require at least 1:1 mitigation so there is no net loss of wetlands. The NRDC is lying to its readers. It is just grandstanding in order to raise money, pointing at boogeymen that don't exist.

The real issues are more complex. We dredge our rivers to maintain vital barge routes and protect our cities. Removing this material -- which also requires a complex permitting process -- removes sediment from rivers, depleting the build-up in the deltas. But if you stop the barges, you transfer freight to trucks and trains, which generate considerably more pollution.

Also a culprit are Greenie-driven runoff control regulations. Sediment runoff from timber and mining operations, home developments and/or agriculture is now highly regulated in many states -- if you put sediment into a stream, you must pay a hefty fine. As a consequence of this eco-fanaticism, streams are running cleaner -- good for fishies, but bad for deltas.