Did Environmentalism Doom New Orleans?

That is the question raised by this report in the L.A. Times: "A Barrier That Could Have Been."

""If we had built the barriers, New Orleans would not be flooded," said Joseph Towers, the retired chief counsel for the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans district.

Tower's view is endorsed by a former key senator, along with academic experts, who say a hurricane barrier is the only way to control the powerful storm surges that enter Lake Pontchartrain and threaten the city. Other experts are less sure, saying the barrier would have been no match for Katrina.

The project was stopped in its tracks when an environmental lawsuit won a federal injunction on the grounds that the Army's environmental impact statement was flawed. By the mid-1980s, the Corps of Engineers abandoned the project."

This civil engineering project was derailed about two decades ago and has escaped major media scrutiny until now. Hopefully this project or a better one will get the attention it needs to be implemented.

Michelle Malkin is on top of this.

Props: Lucianne