GAO Looking Into Faulty N.O. Pumps

Related
Failed New Orleans Levees Blamed On Army Corps
The report says that decades of errors, including not knowing the elevation of New Orleans, allowed the situation in which the levees failed.
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The final report volumes are available on the Internet at https://ipet.wes.army.mil/.
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Thursday March 29, 2007 12:01 AM

By CAIN BURDEAU

Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Government Accountability Office investigators are meeting with Army Corps of Engineers officials to ask questions about drainage pumps that were installed before last year's hurricane season even though they apparently were defective.

The pumps were produced by a Florida company under a $26.6 million contract awarded after Hurricane Katrina. They provide flood protection by draining water from this largely below sea level city.

An engineer for the Corps working on the pumps project warned in a spring 2006 memo that the machinery had problems that likely would keep them from performing under hurricane conditions. Last year was a mild hurricane season, so the pumps were not tested in an emergency scenario.

Anu Mittal, the GAO's director for water resources, said a large team of investigators has been assembled to ``expeditiously'' satisfy a request by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Landrieu, D-La., has asked the GAO, Congress' investigative and auditing arm, to investigate if there was improper influence in the way the pumps contract was awarded and handled. She also wants to know what danger the pumps posed to New Orleans, and the Corps' rationale for installing them.

Mittal said the GAO is considering Landrieu's questions and is aiming to have a report to her by the middle of May, but would not guarantee it.

The Corps did not immediately respond to questions on Wednesday. Since the memo was disclosed two weeks ago the Corps has insisted that the pumps would have worked if they had been pressed into service last year and that the city was never in danger of flooding.

The Corps has said it decided to install the pumps, and then fix the machinery while it was in place, believing that some pumping capacity was better than none. And it defended the manufacturer, which was under time pressure.

The pumps were manufactured by Moving Water Industries Corp., a Deerfield Beach, Fla., company owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps.

The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2002[was Jeb a partner at the time?], accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

Since the pumps were installed, the corps and MWI have struggled to get the heavy-duty pumps to work properly; they have been pulled out and overhauled because of excessive vibration, Corps officials said. Other problems have included overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, according to the Corps memo last year.

Jeb Bush Denied Honor at U. of Florida

Saturday March 24, 2007 10:16 AM

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Friday he was ``tremendously disappointed'' with the school's Faculty Senate vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree.

The Senate voted 38-28 Thursday against giving the honorary degree to Bush, who left office in January.

``Jeb Bush has been a great friend of the University of Florida,'' said Machen, adding that the Senate's action is ``unheard of.''

Some faculty expressed concern about Bush's record in higher education.

``I really don't feel this is a person who has been a supporter of UF,'' Kathleen Price, associate dean of library and technology at the school's Levin College of Law, told The Gainesville Sun after the vote.

Bush's approval of three new medical schools during his tenure has diluted resources, Price told the newspaper.

Bush has also been criticized for his ``One Florida'' proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

Machen maintains, however, that Bush has benefited the university, such as by providing the funding to attract nationally recognized faculty.

Machen also pointed to Bush's First Generation Scholarship program, modeled after a University of Florida effort to help high school students at risk of not making it to college.

University officials said they could not recall any precedent for the Senate rejecting the nominees put forth by the Faculty Senate's Honorary Degrees, Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Memorials Committee. The committee determines whether nominees deserve consideration according to standards that include ``eminent distinction in scholarship or high distinction in public service.''

``The committee endorsed him,'' Machen said. ``It is unheard of that a faculty committee would look at candidates, make recommendations and then (those candidates) be overturned by the Senate.''

An e-mail sent to Bush by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

Louisiana Governor Outraged: Jeb Bush and Faulty Katrina Pumps

Would MSM please investigate the Bush crime family's complicity in 1000's of Katrina deaths.

Louisiana Governor Outraged Over Faulty Pumps
"Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday for installing defective pumps at three major drainage canals just before the start of last summer's hurricane season. The Corps installed the 34 pumps last year in a rush to fix the city's flood defenses, despite warnings from one of its experts that the machinery was defective and likely to fail in a storm."
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Engineer Corps Allegedly Knowingly Installed Faulty Pumps After Katrina - Jeb Bush Linked

The drainage-canal pumps were custom-designed and built under a $26.6 million contract awarded after competitive bidding to Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla. It was founded in 1926 and supplies pumps all over the world for flood control and irrigation.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.