Levees at the Brink of Failure
climate change, community, sustainability, water February 27th, 2008
According to an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times, there are 122 levees in the United States that are at risk of failure. The state of California has 37 levees at risk, and the state of Washington has 19. There are also large population centers at risk, including Albuquerque, Detroit, Hartford, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Omaha and Washington.
“The need to eliminate dangerous levees gives Congress the chance to rethink land and water use, and how they are connected. We should integrate nature and technology, build only in areas that can be adequately protected and allow some wetlands to return to their naturally unconstrained state. After all, experts say, there are only two types of levees: those that have failed, and those that will fail. If we have learned anything from Hurricane Katrina, it’s that we cannot simply wish natural flooding away.”
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