Studying Dutch flood controls?

A group of Louisiana political and business leaders, headed by Senator Mary Landrieu are going to study flood controls in the Netherlands:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is leading a delegation to the Netherlands on Monday to study the flood control systems protecting a nation much farther below sea-level than New Orleans.

The Netherlands’ ambassador invited Landrieu after Hurricane Katrina broke floodgates and levees, flooding most of New Orleans and all of neighboring St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, she said.

The storm’s death toll so far is 1,326 in five states, including 1,077 in Louisiana.

“We’ve had this patchwork, catch-as-catch-can attitude from Washington,” said Landrieu, D-La. “What we need to see is a nation that has really made flood protection a priority.”

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and others have questioned whether areas 3 to 5 feet below sea level should be rebuilt or returned to marshland.

“The Netherlands is 21 feet below sea level,” Landrieu said.

The delegation includes political, business and education leaders. Landrieu said the trip will show that “with the right science and the right engineering and the right investment priorities, people can be safe in the United States whether they live below sea level on the coast or on a mountain 3,500 feet above sea level. It’s all about the technology, the will and the right priorities.”

Holland recently completed a 50-year program to build dams, sea walls, and surge barriers designed to protect the south of the country against almost any storm. It includes twin rotating gates that can seal the mouth of Rotterdam’s harbor against a storm surge, and a set of 62 big gates that can close off the Oosterschelde estuary in Zeeland.

The program will start Tuesday in The Hague with a daylong seminar about Dutch water policy. The group’s itinerary also includes the Delft hydraulics laboratory, where scaled-down tsunamis can be pitted against model floodwalls, said Landrieu’s press secretary, Adam Sharp.

In general, participants arranged their own transportation to and from The Netherlands. A second group, largely from southwestern Louisiana and east Texas, will make a similar trip in March, Landrieu said. “If I have to do a third, I will.”

The most important thing to remember about the Dutch flood control system is that it’s run by the Dutch. If you’ve ever worked with them you know what I mean. The second thing to remember is that in the Netherlands the Directorate of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (which is responsible for administering and maintaining the system) is like the Department of Defense here or the British National Health Service: it’s the place to go if you want to be where the money is.