BY CURTIS MORGAN, Miami Herald, Sept. 12, 2007
A new reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Everglades restoration has already sprung leaks and is so rife with structural and design flaws that it can't be safely filled, state water manager said Wednesday.
The earthen dike needs at least $13 million in repairs and even then, it won't supply all the water it promised to restore to Ten Mile Creek and the St. Lucie River, according to an independent engineering report released Wednesday by the South Florida Water Management District.
Without the fixes, the dike near Fort Pierce -- like the 70-year-old levee around Lake Okeechobee the Corps is currently repairing -- poses a potential danger to homes that have since been built nearby, said George Horne, a district deputy executive director. In some spots, he said, the levee ringing the 550-acre reservoir is so weak that it could easily be loosened with a penknife.
''You can't consciously fill this reservoir any higher than 22 feet without those repairs,'' Horne said. ``Nobody needs to worry at 22 feet. Beyond that, we have concerns.''
But holding water that low also would badly compromise the intended environmental benefits of the $34 million project, providing only 38 percent of the water it was supposed to deliver. Repairs would improve things, but not completely.
Alan Bugg, chief of construction and operations for the Corps' Jacksonville district, which built the reservoir, said the federal agency was ''absolutely committed'' to fixing the flaws, which he blamed on contractor errors and money.
The Corps had hit its congressional budget cap, Bugg said. ``We can't spend another penny, by statute, at Ten Mile Creek.''
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Port Charlotte Democrat whose district includes Ten Mile Creek, said he was disappointed by the Corps' oversight and questioned whether the federal agency had ''operated in a vacuum'' in downsizing the reservoir's capacity.
''Now, you're in a situation, unfortunately, where you're trying to put lipstick on a hog,'' he said.
The reservoir and adjacent storm water treatment area, originally approved by Congress in 1996 as part of a $115 million suite of projects, is supposed to divert and cleanse water flowing into the north fork of the St. Lucie River. It is a sensitive coastal estuary that has been hammered by periodic releases of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee and algae blooms.
Horne described it as the ''keystone'' to a much larger, $1 billion-plus plan to clean up the Indian River Lagoon, a centerpiece of the $14 billion Everglades restoration plan. Unless the reservoir delivers enough water, he said, future projects will likely have to be changed and become more expensive.
It's only the most recent Corps project criticized by the district, which is co-managing Everglades restoration with the federal agency.
Last year, water managers hired BCI Engineering of Lakeland to examine the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee and the resulting report, which found the aging levee at high risk of failure, prompted the Corps to reexamine and overhaul its original repair plan.
This time, BCI uncovered numerous deficiencies at Ten Mile Creek, including rainfall runoff eroding embankments and seepage through levee walls -- despite the fact the reservoir nows contains only four feet of water, far short of the 29 feet it's supposed to hold. In addition, there were fuel and engine problems at a pumping station and a leaky pipe that could weaken and undermine the pump house.
The reservoir was designed before the district and Corps adopted new levee standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which overwhelmed flood-control structures around New Orleans. The levee designs for much larger water preserves now under construction in western Broward County, for instance, are massive in comparison, with armored walls.
To bring Ten Mile Creek to that level, which the district is recommending, would run at least $13 million and include adding a higher protective wall, reinforcing the existing levee and adding a new center levee as a windbreak to reduce wave damage during storms.
It's unclear when, and if, those fixes can be made. Bugg said the Corps would get more money for the project as part of $2 billion in Everglades funding in a water bill Congress is expected to sign off on soon. But President Bush already has threatened to veto it, calling the bill's $21 billion in nationwide projects excessive.
Showing posts with label domestic costs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label domestic costs. Show all posts
House halts funds for new nuclear warhead
By Richard Cowan, Reuters, June 20, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday moved to block President George W. Bush from developing a new generation of atomic warheads, as Democratic and Republican opponents said the administration had not developed an adequate post-Cold War nuclear strategy.
A fiscal 2008 bill funding Department of Energy weapons programs that is moving through the House provided none of Bush's nearly $89 million request for continuing to develop the new warheads over the next few decades at a multibillion-dollar cost.
A vote on passing the overall bill was delayed until sometime after a July 4 holiday recess so lawmakers can review a series of unrelated projects that will be attached to the legislation.
The bill, which faces a White House veto threat because it would spend $1.1 billion more than Bush requested, still must be debated by the Senate.
"I don't think it is asking too much for a comprehensive nuclear strategy before we build a new nuclear weapon," said Rep. Peter Visclosky, the Indiana Democrat steering the money bill through the House.
Rep. David Hobson, an Ohio Republican, also voiced opposition, saying that while "The concept of RRW (Reliable Replacement Warhead) has merit if it allows us to have a smaller stockpile of more reliable weapons ... all we have right now is a vague promise."
The proposed warheads would replace some that are 30 years old and could deteriorate if not properly maintained. Some supporters of the new warhead argue that small changes might be needed to extend the life of the existing ones and that could lead to nuclear testing for the first time in more than a decade. They also say the large existing stockpile could be replaced with fewer, more efficient warheads.
But opponents challenge assertions that testing would not be needed for the new warhead. They also say the existing stockpile could be maintained indefinitely and there is no military need for a new, costly weapon.
DIPLOMATIC PROBLEMS
A House Appropriations Committee report said that going ahead with the program also would present diplomatic problems because "of the U.S. policy position of demanding other nations give up their nuclear ambitions while the U.S. aggressively pursues a program to build new nuclear warheads."
The Bush administration has been trying to pressure Iran to abandon a nuclear program that Tehran insists is aimed at energy production and not producing weapons. For a long time, the United States also has been cajoling North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
In a statement last week, the White House said it "strongly opposes the committee's decision to eliminate funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead." But it did not say Bush would veto the bill over this issue.
Rep. Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican whose district includes the Sandia National Laboratories that works on nuclear weapons projects, called the House provision "devastating to American nuclear weapons capabilities" and said it was "rubbish" that the United States had not developed a post-Cold War strategy for nuclear weapons.
The House bill would spend $5.9 billion on Energy Department weapons programs, $632 million below Bush's request and $396 million below this year's level. It would cut 37 weapons program accounts.
The legislation would significantly increase nuclear nonproliferation activities, including money to secure nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union and to increase efforts to keep them from entering the United States.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday moved to block President George W. Bush from developing a new generation of atomic warheads, as Democratic and Republican opponents said the administration had not developed an adequate post-Cold War nuclear strategy.
A fiscal 2008 bill funding Department of Energy weapons programs that is moving through the House provided none of Bush's nearly $89 million request for continuing to develop the new warheads over the next few decades at a multibillion-dollar cost.
A vote on passing the overall bill was delayed until sometime after a July 4 holiday recess so lawmakers can review a series of unrelated projects that will be attached to the legislation.
The bill, which faces a White House veto threat because it would spend $1.1 billion more than Bush requested, still must be debated by the Senate.
"I don't think it is asking too much for a comprehensive nuclear strategy before we build a new nuclear weapon," said Rep. Peter Visclosky, the Indiana Democrat steering the money bill through the House.
Rep. David Hobson, an Ohio Republican, also voiced opposition, saying that while "The concept of RRW (Reliable Replacement Warhead) has merit if it allows us to have a smaller stockpile of more reliable weapons ... all we have right now is a vague promise."
The proposed warheads would replace some that are 30 years old and could deteriorate if not properly maintained. Some supporters of the new warhead argue that small changes might be needed to extend the life of the existing ones and that could lead to nuclear testing for the first time in more than a decade. They also say the large existing stockpile could be replaced with fewer, more efficient warheads.
But opponents challenge assertions that testing would not be needed for the new warhead. They also say the existing stockpile could be maintained indefinitely and there is no military need for a new, costly weapon.
DIPLOMATIC PROBLEMS
A House Appropriations Committee report said that going ahead with the program also would present diplomatic problems because "of the U.S. policy position of demanding other nations give up their nuclear ambitions while the U.S. aggressively pursues a program to build new nuclear warheads."
The Bush administration has been trying to pressure Iran to abandon a nuclear program that Tehran insists is aimed at energy production and not producing weapons. For a long time, the United States also has been cajoling North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
In a statement last week, the White House said it "strongly opposes the committee's decision to eliminate funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead." But it did not say Bush would veto the bill over this issue.
Rep. Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican whose district includes the Sandia National Laboratories that works on nuclear weapons projects, called the House provision "devastating to American nuclear weapons capabilities" and said it was "rubbish" that the United States had not developed a post-Cold War strategy for nuclear weapons.
The House bill would spend $5.9 billion on Energy Department weapons programs, $632 million below Bush's request and $396 million below this year's level. It would cut 37 weapons program accounts.
The legislation would significantly increase nuclear nonproliferation activities, including money to secure nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union and to increase efforts to keep them from entering the United States.
U.S. hometowns strained as police go off to war
By Andrea Hopkins, June 14, 2007
ALEXANDRIA, Ky (Reuters) - Police Chief Keith Hill respects Americans who have left civilian jobs to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the fact that so many of them are police officers means he's been short-staffed for years.
"We have one detective on his second deployment. He went once, then came back, then went again, and he's just been extended until July 09. Another officer was gone all of 2005," said Hill, who oversees Campbell County's 31-person police force in the rolling hills of northern Kentucky.
The prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put pressure on the National Guard, whose citizen-soldiers can be called away from civilian jobs for months or years at a time to fight beside regular soldiers in war zones.
About 16 percent of the 182,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are members of the National Guard.
Communities across America have been especially hard-hit by the deployment of some 24,000 police officers since September 11, 2001. Police officers make up 5.1 percent of the National Guard and military reserve -- one of the top civilian occupations, according to Defense Department data.
Kentucky's Hill said crime rates have not gone up because police are short-handed. But he admits that the softer side of law enforcement has been sacrificed.
"We do fewer crime prevention talks. Community outreach suffers," he said.
Detective Tom Nitschke, one of Campbell County's two remaining detectives, has felt the crunch first hand.
"The community expects the same service and you have to provide it -- with less people," Nitschke said from the department's tiny detectives bureau, where one desk sits empty.
MORE THAN A SCHEDULING PROBLEM
Repeated deployments to war zones do more than mess with police schedules -- the loss of just one officer can devastate a small town, where police forces are shoestring operations and the jobs of the town's "first responders" often overlap.
"Especially in small communities, you may have a person in the National Guard, working for the fire or police department, who may also be a part-time ambulance driver. So when you lose one person to deployment, you actually lose several functions," said National Guard spokesman Randal Noller.
In 2005, police chief Jose Pequeno and officer David Wentworth represented the totality of law enforcement in tiny Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, population 600. When Pequeno was deployed to Iraq in May 2005, Wentworth was alone.
"I juggled. I worked every day and was on call nights and weekends," said Wentworth, a 43-year-old father of four. "I missed out of some of my children's events because I was working. But the town is very good and we managed."
Then, in March 2006, Pequeno was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Ramadi. While Pequeno remains Sugar Hill's nominal police chief, he's still undergoing treatment for head injuries and is unable to work.
A new police officer has been hired to help out, but Wentworth, whose 19-year-old son has just been deployed to Iraq with the Army Rangers, refuses to discuss the possibility that his chief may never return to work.
"I'd just rather not go there, if you can understand," he said.
CALLING YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
Police across the United States say the wars have also robbed police academies of fresh faces.
"A lot of the people that are given by nature to public service are serving their country overseas," said James Valiquet, president of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police. "In Manchester, our biggest city, they're trying to fill 25 positions and they only had three or four viable candidates."
Arizona, one of the fastest-growing U.S. states, faces a similar shortage. But replacing a deployed officer is nearly impossible anyway. By law, employers must leave a Guard member's job open while the worker is deployed.
Even temporarily filling a police job is hampered by the obstacle course of recruitment, training and certification required by most police forces, said Ralph Tranter, executive director of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police.
"The training curve is so great," said Tranter. "I'd say Guard and Reserve service has affected just about every police department's ability to respond to calls for service."
Still, the police officers left behind to fill the void of their deployed colleagues say the sacrifices are worth it.
"It's an honor, our way of helping those guys who are over there serving the country," said Richard Whitford, acting chief of the Fort Thomas police department in Kentucky, which lost an officer for nearly two years. "It puts a strain on the smaller departments, but it's just something we do."
ALEXANDRIA, Ky (Reuters) - Police Chief Keith Hill respects Americans who have left civilian jobs to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the fact that so many of them are police officers means he's been short-staffed for years.
"We have one detective on his second deployment. He went once, then came back, then went again, and he's just been extended until July 09. Another officer was gone all of 2005," said Hill, who oversees Campbell County's 31-person police force in the rolling hills of northern Kentucky.
The prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put pressure on the National Guard, whose citizen-soldiers can be called away from civilian jobs for months or years at a time to fight beside regular soldiers in war zones.
About 16 percent of the 182,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are members of the National Guard.
Communities across America have been especially hard-hit by the deployment of some 24,000 police officers since September 11, 2001. Police officers make up 5.1 percent of the National Guard and military reserve -- one of the top civilian occupations, according to Defense Department data.
Kentucky's Hill said crime rates have not gone up because police are short-handed. But he admits that the softer side of law enforcement has been sacrificed.
"We do fewer crime prevention talks. Community outreach suffers," he said.
Detective Tom Nitschke, one of Campbell County's two remaining detectives, has felt the crunch first hand.
"The community expects the same service and you have to provide it -- with less people," Nitschke said from the department's tiny detectives bureau, where one desk sits empty.
MORE THAN A SCHEDULING PROBLEM
Repeated deployments to war zones do more than mess with police schedules -- the loss of just one officer can devastate a small town, where police forces are shoestring operations and the jobs of the town's "first responders" often overlap.
"Especially in small communities, you may have a person in the National Guard, working for the fire or police department, who may also be a part-time ambulance driver. So when you lose one person to deployment, you actually lose several functions," said National Guard spokesman Randal Noller.
In 2005, police chief Jose Pequeno and officer David Wentworth represented the totality of law enforcement in tiny Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, population 600. When Pequeno was deployed to Iraq in May 2005, Wentworth was alone.
"I juggled. I worked every day and was on call nights and weekends," said Wentworth, a 43-year-old father of four. "I missed out of some of my children's events because I was working. But the town is very good and we managed."
Then, in March 2006, Pequeno was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Ramadi. While Pequeno remains Sugar Hill's nominal police chief, he's still undergoing treatment for head injuries and is unable to work.
A new police officer has been hired to help out, but Wentworth, whose 19-year-old son has just been deployed to Iraq with the Army Rangers, refuses to discuss the possibility that his chief may never return to work.
"I'd just rather not go there, if you can understand," he said.
CALLING YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
Police across the United States say the wars have also robbed police academies of fresh faces.
"A lot of the people that are given by nature to public service are serving their country overseas," said James Valiquet, president of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police. "In Manchester, our biggest city, they're trying to fill 25 positions and they only had three or four viable candidates."
Arizona, one of the fastest-growing U.S. states, faces a similar shortage. But replacing a deployed officer is nearly impossible anyway. By law, employers must leave a Guard member's job open while the worker is deployed.
Even temporarily filling a police job is hampered by the obstacle course of recruitment, training and certification required by most police forces, said Ralph Tranter, executive director of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police.
"The training curve is so great," said Tranter. "I'd say Guard and Reserve service has affected just about every police department's ability to respond to calls for service."
Still, the police officers left behind to fill the void of their deployed colleagues say the sacrifices are worth it.
"It's an honor, our way of helping those guys who are over there serving the country," said Richard Whitford, acting chief of the Fort Thomas police department in Kentucky, which lost an officer for nearly two years. "It puts a strain on the smaller departments, but it's just something we do."
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