In her first book, Rivers by Design: State Power and the Origins of U.S. Flood Control (Duke University Press, 2006), O’Neill describes the social origins of this country’s flood control program. The story begins in the mid-1800s with the Mississippi and Sacramento rivers, the first to receive flood control aid, and highlights the Flood Control Act of 1936, which allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to control all navigable rivers. This legislation stopped national comprehensive planning to protect water resources and led to the re-engineering of every major river in the country.
O’Neill, an assistant professor of human ecology in New Brunswick, was intrigued by the emergence of the federal flood control system developed more than 150 years ago. In an era when most Americans opposed government intervention, a flood control program was established to appease planters, shippers, and merchants who lobbied for federal assistance with flood control efforts.
“This is a story of how special groups worked to get government assistance to make their own lives better,” O’Neill said. “Both valleys – Sacramento and Mississippi –argued that the nation owed the two regions special flood control aid because the areas were vital to the nation’s economy and survival.” In addition, the regions threatened cessation if their demands were not met, she said.
Today flood control is one of the government’s largest programs, yet many are unaware of its scope or its existence. “Spending on the flood control program is second only to the highway program, and it’s an invisible program,” O’Neill said. “The program has become naturalized and appears to be part of the scenery.” For example, one flood control remedy is to build dirt levees, or earthen mounds, alongside rivers, which blend in with their surroundings and do not look man-made.
In New Orleans, O’Neill noted, levees were built alongside the Mississippi River to help navigation and to alleviate flooding; however, the practice destroys the surrounding wetlands and causes a build-up of pollutants.
“Wetlands are important because they can absorb pulses of water,” O’Neill said. “If a big gush comes along, it doesn’t flood. Once you build levees, the water cannot seep out the sides of the river to the land.” This is crucial in New Orleans because the levees prevent the remaining wetlands from soaking up excess water and releasing it slowly. The building of homes along the levees further destroys the wetlands, she said.
In addition, the levees do not let silt deposit and build up alongside the Mississippi River. “If a river is not seeping and depositing silt due to the flood control system, silt shoots into the Gulf instead of depositing in Louisiana,” she said. “This creates a dead zone in the water, with deposits of excess silt and agricultural chemicals, all because of the walled river.” These factors, along with New Orleans’ low elevation, made it more vulnerable to a hurricane, she said. If New Orleans is rebuilt, O’Neill predicts that history will once again repeat itself.
