Originally posted by tedrbr
Corps of Engineers was the overall authority and handled large issues such as dredging operations and major upgrades and the rebuilding, AFAIK, but local regular maintenance and repairs was done at the Parish level, from what I've read about the issue.
Who set, inspected, or enforced whatever standards there might have been seems to be a bit murky though. It does not seem to be well managed before Katrina, but it looks like they are going back to the way things were.
The corp of engineers is responsible for dredging, outlying marsh upkeep, and major rebuild only. They did a crappy job at that as evidenced by the state of the surrounding marshes that were supposed to be upkept, yet never were, and worse so were allowed to stagnate into death.
The parishes are not the responsible parties of the levies. That is left on the state of LA to ensure that it was upkept. They chose to use the money (mostly federal) elsewhwere, and now the situation sits. As for Parish responsibility, that lies on the dry side. Something that allows for little or no chance, but something that they spent money on elsewhere.
