Boxer to Army Corps: La work needs to improve

Published 5:07 pm Wednesday, June 17, 2009

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer has expressed concern that the Army Corps of Engineers is moving too slowly in its work to protect south Louisiana from hurricanes and that the work might be inadequate.

At a committee hearing Tuesday in Washington on the Army Corps’ work in Louisiana, Boxer, D-Calif., urged Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, the commander of the corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, to finish a study that looks at a comprehensive plan to protect Louisiana’s coast from hurricanes. The corps has fallen behind schedule on that report.

Also, Boxer, the committee’s chairwoman, said the corps should look at scrapping an $800 million protection plan on New Orleans three main drainage canals and consider a more expensive option Louisiana officials say is safer.

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