Background
Corps of Engineers' projects are either authorized specifically by Congress or as part of a Congressionally authorized category of projects. Projects exist found in all fifty states,
Local citizen, special interest, and political groups can lobby Congress for authorization and appropriations for specific projects in their area. However, as the Washington Post reports, "The Corps could also be swayed by politics, as it demonstrated."
Locals sometimes oppose Corps projects. In 2005, a Washington Post article reported that "...local officials often resisted proposals to protect their communities from storms because they did not want to pay their share of federal projects. On 9 July 2007, retired LtGen Elvin "Vald" Heiberg III, who was the Commander of the New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers in the late 1970s and later the Chief of Engineers in the mid 1980s, stated in a letter to the New Orleans Times Picayune that people should blame him for the Katrina disaster. He says that, as Commander of the New Orleans District and later as the Commander of the Corps of Engineers, he gave in to local interests—notably Save Our Wetlands, too easily after various legal challenges. Windell Curole, who works for the South Lafourche Levee District, stated in 2007 that "It almost looks like sabotage from the scientific community."
However, support or opposition to local projects is certainly not unique to New Orleans.
Read more about this topic: U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Civil Works Controversies
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