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2. United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
3. Mississippi Valley Division
4. New Orleans District
5. Environmental Documents

Title:	Final Comprehensive Environmental Document, Phase I, Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, Volume I
Authors:	United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. New Orleans District.
Keywords:	Hurricane protection Flood control Environmental management New Orleans (La.)
Publisher:	United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. New Orleans District.
Abstract:	After the devastation of the 2005 hurricane season, the U.S. embarked on one of the largest civil works projects ever undertaken, at an estimated cost of $14 billion, with restoration, accelerated construction, improvements, and enhancements of various risk reduction projects within southeastern Louisiana, including the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity, Louisiana Project and the West Bank and Vicinity, Louisiana Project, jointly referred to as the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System. With the completion of the levees, floodwalls, gates, and pumps that together form the HSDRRS, 100-year level of hurricane and storm damage risk reduction will be brought to the areas within LPV and WBV. The agency tasked with the planning, design, and construction of these civil works projects is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, New Orleans District. The scope of this document does not discuss the entirety of the post-Hurricane Katrina HSDRRS work, but rather the 217 miles of the HSDRRS located in the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the area within LPV and WBV, that was analyzed in documents prepared for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 through the Emergency Alternative Arrangements approved by the Council on Environmental Quality and published in the Federal Register on March 13, 2007 (see Federal Register Volume 72, Number 48 at 11337, Tuesday, March 13, 2007). In order to construct the HSDRRS, the USACE was required by Federal law to follow the requirements of NEPA. Under the typical NEPA process, the start of HSDRRS construction would have waited until the completion of several NEPA reports that analyzed projects in their entirety. By following the normal NEPA requirements, the completion of the reports documenting the USACE’s decisions would have taken a significant amount of time (likely 1 to 3 years before any construction could begin). However, this environmental review schedule would not have met the USACE’s emergency schedule, and the local needs, for completion of the HSDRRS.
Description:	Comprehensive Environmental Document
Rights:	Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/11681/35398
Size:	676 pages / 19.24 Mb
Types of Materials:	PDF/A
Appears in Collections:	Environmental Documents