2019 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 111
BY SENATOR MORRELL
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To memorialize the Congress of the United States to reassess the entire levee and floodwall
system in the southeastern United States.
WHEREAS, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently
completed the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System
(HSDRRS) at a cost of over fourteen billion dollars; and
WHEREAS, the HSDRRS system is a network of levees, floodwalls, gated
structures, and pump stations that form the one hundred thirty-three mile Greater New
Orleans perimeter system, including three hundred fifty miles of interior levees and
floodwalls, and seventy miles of interior risk reduction structures built to protect the Greater
New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina; and
WHEREAS, the HSDRRS system is one of the largest public works projects in world
history, providing Greater New Orleans with the world's largest surge barrier of its kind (the
IHNC-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier) and the largest draining pump station in the world (the
GIWW-West Closure Complex); and
WHEREAS, even with all these recent improvements, the USACE recently reported
that the HSDRRS system may not be adequate to protect New Orleans in as little as four
years due partly to the settling of the levees -- a natural phenomenon that is exacerbated by
the soft soil in southern Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, the USACE, in announcing that it is studying system improvements,
also cited "the global incidence of sea level rise" in a recent Federal Register as a
contributing factor for the inadequacy of the existing levees; and
WHEREAS, the USACE further stated in the Federal Register that "absent future
levee lifts to offset consolidation, settlement, subsidence, and sea level rise, risk to life and
property in the Greater New Orleans area will progressively increase".
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana memorializes
the Congress of the United States to reassess the entire levee and floodwall system in the
southeastern United States.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of the United States House of
Representatives and to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States
Congress.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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