New Orleans Official Blamed Flooding On ‘Climate Change,’ But Broken Pumps Were To Blame

dailycaller.com ^ | Aug. 10, 2017 | MICHAEL BASTASCH

[ETL]

May, 2015

How the pump stations will work

When storm surge from a tropical storm or hurricane is expected to raise water levels in Lake Pontchartrain, the surge gates will be closed and the station pumps will be turned on.

They will suck water from the bottom of the drainage canal through the "formed suction intakes", metal boxes that act as funnels.

The water is pulled upwards by the pumps and pushed into the lake at about 8 feet below sea level.  The floodwall on the outside of all three stations will be 18 feet above sea level, while the base of the suction intake will be 50 feet below sea level at the London Avenue and 17th Street canal stations and 40 feet below sea level at the Orleans Avenue station.

That depth would allow the city of New Orleans to eventually transition its drainage system into one that relies on gravity and would not need the interior pumping stations that now feed rainwater into the canals.

The new pump stations would then operate full time, instead of only during tropical storms and hurricanes.

That transition could cost as much as $2.6 billion, according to the corps, which decided against including it in the post-Katrina plans to build the new stations because of the cost.

http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/05/5_things_you_should_know_about_1.html

[ETL]

March 2015

‘Monster Pumps’ Will Protect New Orleans from Flooding

“There are no valves in the pumps, Claxton notes. They instead respond to the head (pressure) that is generated by the difference in the water elevations on the canal side (the suction side) and the lake side (the discharge side). “There are various circumstances that will cause the water levels to vary,” Claxton explains. “There was a full range of water levels that we had to engineer for.””

https://www.automationworld.com/monster-pumps-will-protect-new-orleans-flooding

[ETL]

[Western Phil]

There are two sets of pumps. The really old ones pump rain water out of the below sea level city into the outflow canals. These are at sea level and are open to Lake Ponchartrain. Without these pumps, New Orleans would be a fresh water lake or an extension of Lake Ponchartrain.

The storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the relatively weak outflow canal walls and flooded portions of the city. Before the hurricane, there were no flood gates. GWB installed the flood gate systems at the end of the canals to prevent similar occurrences. With the flood gates closed, it is necessary to pump out the outflow canals. These pumps are shown in Post 17, the old ones are not.