re: NOLA Sewerage & Water Board director comments about the flooding.... "Climate Change"

quote:

---

Are you a hydraulic engineer

---

Yes

quote:

---

Where is the evidence that cavitation was an issue?

---

I did not say this.

You cannot turn on pumps to pump dry or without the right head needed. If the pump is too high capacity, having low flow will cause cavitation. Then y'all will be complaining about how the city has to replace these pumps yet again.

Pretty sure the levee board is also private (and one of the most corrupt of all) from what I understand.

quote:

---

You cannot turn on pumps to pump dry or without the right head needed. If the pump is too high capacity, having low flow will cause cavitation. Then y'all will be complaining about how the city has to replace these pumps yet again.

---

Perhaps you can help explain why the cities pumps can handle "only" 3.5 inches of rainfall in a 6 hour period. According to the Rainfall Frequency Atlas, there is a 20% chance that total is exceeded by 2+ inches on an annual basis. There is a 10% chance the total is exceed by 3+ inches, a 4% chance it is exceeded by 4+ inches, and a 1% chance it is exceeded by 5.5+ inches of rainfall.

Let's say the lifetime of those pumps are estimated to be 30 years - there is a 71% chance that their capacity will be exceeded by 4+ inches in a 6 hour time frame during their life expectancy. That seems like a problem.

quote:

---

Pretty sure the levee board is also private (and one of the most corrupt of all) from what I understand.

---

Levee District is here.

LINK

quote:

---

Contrary to what national sources sometimes say, all of New Orleans does not lay below sea level.
But certainly, huge swaths of the city are below sea level, as seen in this graphic.

---

On a non-technical side, they crunch the numbers and say, "well, it'll take $750 million to upgrade the pumps to handle a bigger storm. Projected property losses for the next 30 years are only $250 million. We can kick the can down the road until it's someone else's problem."

Then you have politicians thinking about the next election. They don't want to tell their constituents that taxes are going up so that they can take more of your money to give to an already fiscally-irresponsible department. Or they don't want to tell a street that we need to demolish all of your homes and turn it in to stormwater detention area. That's a sure fire way to not get elected.

There are a lot of comparisons of New Orleans to The Netherlands. The major difference is that the Dutch plan much further out and without regard to election cycles. Deltaworks is a 100 year plan. That's unheard of in our country. The Dutch bite the bullet, raise funds, take land, and get to moving dirt.

Both politicians and residents of New Orleans pay a lot of lip service to improving drainage, but at the end of the day they will do nothing about it. I spent seven years to working on drainage in that city, and was constantly frustrated with all the talk and no action. We know the problem. We know the solutions. Get to work.

So does Mitch have a plan to handle rainwater temporarily until he can be elected president, where he will quickly halt and reverse worldwide climate change?