[StBernard] how much are we worth saving

[Westley Annis]

Saw an article online for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson about a Chevron
refinery expanding in MS and the cost was to be about 4.8 billion.  I
believe it's an expansion of an existing plant.
 
As for the St. Bernard parish refineries, there is so much infrastructure in
place for them it would seem that the cost to relocate those plants would be
astronomical.
 
I doubt the Feds would be concerned about restitution costs to residents.
They'll say "Sure you can rebuild there, but the levees won't be a factor in
considering your flood rates.  Because they are not certified as capable of
withstanding a 100-year storm we'll factor out the levees and your flood
premiums will reflect that difference."
 
What gripes my backside over all of this is the fact that the C.O.E. was
responsible for the design of those levees and it's THEIR FAULT that we had
the destruction we did have!  
 
JY


 


	From the media articles regarding the $5.23 BILLION in additional
levee
	construction costs (some are citing it as $6 BILLION) --
	
	Improvements in East New Orleans would cost $.710 billion or 13% of
the
	additional money
	
	St.Bernard-Lower 9th Ward = $1.0 billion. or 19% of the additional
money
	
	East Jefferson-St. Charles = $.386 billion or 7% of the additional 
	money
	
	West Jefferson = $.657 billion or 13% of the 
	additional money
	
	Algiers- Belle Chase = $.290 billion or 6% of the addtional 
	money
	********************************The above protects 99 percent of the
	population for 45% of the additional costs.
	
	Plaquemines=$2.9 billion or 56% of the additional money
	
	"One would clearly understand by looking at the chart that for
roughly
	$2.5
	to $3 billion, you would encompass about 99 percent of the
population," 
	is what Powell
	said during a conference call.
	
	So here's what I'm thinking. The feds are doing calculations for
	costs/benefits. Using population, Plaquemines would be a sacrificial
lamb. I
	don't know the population of N.O East, St. Bernard,nor St. Bernard
combined
	with the Lower 9th ward. I don't know if they use pre or post
Katrina, but
	based on either population, St. Bernard by itself with a pre Katrina
	population of 67,000 would be another sacrificial lamb,
EXCEPT-----and it's
	a big one----IF THE FEDS SEE A NATIONAL INTEREST TO PROTECT
CHALMETTE
	REFINING AND MURPHY OIL PLANTS.
	
	So our fate when it comes to whether or not St. Bernard is
expendable has to
	ride on the nation's dependency on the production of these two
refineries. I
	doubt they care about sugar refinining, damage to the national
parks, or the
	Port of St. Bernard, etc.
	
	Now if they determine that any parish or portion thereof is
expendable,
	i.e. not worth protecting, then does the federal govt. have to give
	restitution, and if so, what is that cost?
	Just based on the two refineries, what does it cost if the feds had
to pay
	their relocation costs? I haven't built a refinery so I don't know,
but if
	we can send BILLIONS of "free"
	money to countries all over the world for humanitarian purposes (and
	sometimes it's people who hate American) and who knows what other
causes,
	why can't we find the money for U.S. citizens on U.S. soil? I doubt
the GAO
	does a cost benefit analysis on giving money to foreign countries
based on
	anything, let alone population. We save snails, birds, and fish
based on the
	responsible thing to do, but for flood protection, it's going to be
	cost/benefits?
	
	ddk