17th Street Canal
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The 17th Street Canal is the largest and most important drainage canal in the city of
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
. Operating with Pump Station 6, it moves water into
Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west ...
. The canal, along with the Orleans Canal and the
London Avenue Canal The London Avenue Canal is a drainage canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, used for pumping rain water into Lake Pontchartrain. The canal runs through the 7th Ward of New Orleans from the Gentilly area to the Lakefront. It is one of the three main drai ...
, form the New Orleans Outfall Canals. The 17th Street Canal forms a significant portion of the boundary between the city of
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
and
Metairie, Louisiana Metairie ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and is part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. With a population of 143,507 in 2020, Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish and was (a ...
. The canal has also been known as the Metairie Outlet Canal and the Upperline Canal.


History

The canal that was to become later known as the 17th Street Canal seems to have had its origin at the start of the 1850s as a canal dug through swampy ground to raise a parallel right of way where the Jefferson and Lake Pontchartrain Railway was built. The railway, in business from 1853 through 1864, connected the town of
Carrollton, Louisiana Carrollton is a historic neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, which includes the Carrollton Historic District, recognized by the Historic District Landmark Commission. It is the part of Uptown New Orleans farthest upriver while s ...
(along the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
front) with a shipping port on Lake Pontchartrain at what became Bucktown, Louisiana, a distance of about . At the time, most of the land between the two terminals was undeveloped swamp. Meanwhile, in 1858, a secondary canal was built to aid in drainage in the low swampy area in "back of town" from Carrollton, with its head at what is now the intersection of Dublin and Palmetto streets, connecting to the Railway canal a short distance on the river side of the Metairie Ridge. The railway was discontinued on December 31, 1864, as competing rail lines between the river and lake were more successful. The city of New Orleans annexed Carrollton, and the canal became the boundary line between
Orleans Parish New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
and
Jefferson Parish Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
. As the canal marked the up-river limit of Orleans Parish, it became known as the Upperline Canal. The spur canal in the back of Carrollton was beside a projected street numbered "17th Street" (although at the time there was little actual development in back of Claiborne Avenue), and that canal was thus the first to be known as the "17th Street Canal", a name which would later come to commonly refer to the large canal which this is connected to.


Improved drainage with pumping stations

By the 1870s, a
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
powered pump known as the "Dublin Street Machine" at the back of the Carrollton neighborhood was used to drain that neighborhood, pumping the water out the Upperline Canal. Use of the canal to pump water from the streets of the city into Lake Pontchartrain grew with the city. The Claiborne Canal connected with the 17th and Upperline Canal system via a canal along Dublin Avenue; thus the canal served to carry rain water to the lake from the majority of Uptown New Orleans above the
New Basin Canal The New Basin Canal, also known as the New Canal and the New Orleans Canal, was a shipping canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating from 1830s into the 1940s. History The New Basin Canal was constructed by the New Orleans Canal and Banking Comp ...
. Another canal, Hoey's Canal, was added connecting to the Upperline from up river to help drain the back of the Jefferson Parish communities along the riverfront, now known as "Old Jefferson". In 1894, "17th Street" was renamed "Palmetto Street" (later redesignated Palmetto Avenue), but the canal continued to be popularly known by the old street name. In 1899 a new pumping station was opened atop the Canal a couple blocks back from Metairie Road. In the early 20th century, new high-efficiency pumps designed by A. Baldwin Wood were installed, and remain in operation. At the start of the 21st century, Pumping Station 6, or the Metairie Pumping Station, astride the canal had 15 pumps capable of moving over six billion gallons of water a day through the station. Runoff from substantial areas of
Uptown New Orleans Uptown is a section of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, encompassing a number of neighborhoods (including the similarly-named and smaller Uptown area) between the French Quarter and the Jefferso ...
, Metairie, and surrounding neighborhoods drains into the canals and basins on the river side of the pumping station, which pulls the water up into the portion of the 17th Street Canal flowing into Lake Pontchartrain.


20th century: Residential development of the "Back of Town"

When the Station 6 was constructed, it was at the "back" end of the developed part of town. As the area alongside the canal closer to the lake was largely undeveloped swamp, it was originally of little concern if waters pumped out of the city topped the canal and flowed into the swamp during heavy rains. In the late 1920s and the 1930s, a project dredged fill along the lakefront, creating new land in what had been Lake Pontchartrain and creating a sizable levee along the lake side. However, no efforts were made to raise the swampland between Metairie Ridge and the new lakefront fill. The areas along the Canal from Metairie Ridge to the Lake were substantially developed for residential use after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and levees along the "back" sections of the Canal were raised. The water level of the canal is often significantly higher than the surrounding streets. After
Hurricane Betsy Hurricane Betsy was an intense and destructive tropical cyclone that brought widespread damage to areas of Florida and the central United States Gulf Coast in September 1965. The storm's erratic nature, coupled with its intensity and minim ...
, improved flood protection for the city and its canals to cope with storm surge from hurricanes was mandated, resulting in increasing the size and height of the canal levees. In 1998
Hurricane Georges Hurricane Georges () was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde Category 4 hurricane which caused severe destruction as it traversed the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in September 1998, making eight landfalls along its path. Georges was the seve ...
elevated the level of Lake Pontchartrain, pushing lake waters into the canal. A report noted that there was at least one place where the water came within inches of topping the flood wall. An upgrade of the canal levees, flood walls, and bridges began in 1999. The canal was considered in good shape at the start of the
2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in history, until the record was broken 15 years later in 2020. The season broke numerous records at the time, with 28 tropical or subtropical storms recorded. ...
. Before Katrina arrived, the 17th Street Canal was the largest and most important drainage canal in the city of New Orleans. Operating with Pumping Station No. 6 – which at that time was the most powerful pumping station in the world – the 17th Street Canal was capable of conveying 9,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, more than the Orleans Avenue and London Avenue Canals combined. (The Orleans Avenue Canal, at maximum capacity, could pump 2,200 cfs and the London Avenue Canal, at maximum capacity, could pump 5,200 cfs.)


Hurricane Katrina

At about 6:30 am on August 29, 2005, a portion of the I-wall along the east side of the 17th Street Canal adjacent to the 6900 block of Bellaire Drive split open, sending torrents of water into New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood. The water level in the Canal at the time of failure was about 5 feet lower than the top of the I-wall, well below the design water level. The breach released storm-surge floodwaters that destroyed buildings, homes, and infrastructure, throughout all but the highest areas within the city. The initial breach expanded to a nearly 450-foot wide gap. Thirty-one (31) victims were recovered from areas directly flooded due to the breach of the 17th Street Canal levee.


Investigations into the breach

Two teams investigated the failure, the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) and the Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT). The studies confirmed that the canal flood wall failed at significantly lower water level than the top of the flood wall due to faulty design. In August 2007, the Corps announced the results of an engineering analysis applying more stringent post-Katrina design criteria which showed the maximum safe load on some of the surviving flood walls is only of water, which is half the original design intent. On November 10, 2005, an article in the ''
Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...
'' revealed that sonar soundings discovered that the steel sheet pilings of the levee flood wall were 2.1 m (7 ft) less deep than engineering specifications. Sample pilings pulled up were found to be of the length specified in the design (17 feet), but it was then revealed that this length was less than the actual depth of the canal, in retrospect an obvious engineering mistake. Current analysis concludes that the catastrophic breach was due to faulty design, rather than storm surge higher than what the canal was designed to withstand. According to an article published in the August 2015 issue of the official journal of the
World Water Council The World Water Council (WWC), also known as the Conseil Mondial de l'Eau (CME), is an international think tank. It was founded in 1996, with its headquarters in Marseille, France. It has 358 members (as of February 2020) which encompass organisa ...
, the Army Corps of Engineers misinterpreted the results of a Sheet Pile Load test (E-99 Study) conducted in the mid-1980s and concluded they needed to drive sheet pilings to depths of not more than 17 feet, rather than the necessary 31 to 46 feet. This move saved millions but greatly reduced overall engineering reliability.


Reconstruction after Katrina

The Corps constructed a permanent auxiliary pump station. During a hurricane event, the gate will be closed and its pump station will operate in tandem with local Pump Station 6 to act as a barrier to storm surge and lake flooding. In January 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it had finished the temporary repairs of the breached section of the levee, and construction of more permanent repairs would commence. As a temporary measure, the corps constructed storm-surge barrier gates and an interim pump station at the lake end of the canal. In February 2007, a contract was awarded to WESTON Solutions to increase the pumping capacity of the 17th Street Canal. In June 2008, plans were announced by the Corps of Engineers to clear private land for access to the flood wall and levee. This land comprises the backyards along Bellaire Drive on the New Orleans (east) side of the canal. On July 7, 2008, a state court judge ruled the Corps could continue, but that property owners could seek compensation. Plans to clear encroachments on the west (Jefferson Parish) side of the canal were to begin with field surveys in early 2009. A whistle blower claimed the temporary pumps have inadequate capacity to prevent the canal from overflowing and predicted failure of both the pumps and gates. But on September 1, 2008, the gates were closed as
Hurricane Gustav Hurricane Gustav () was the second most destructive hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. The seventh tropical cyclone, third hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season, Gustav caused serious damage and casualties in Haiti, ...
approached the Louisiana coast. Both hydraulic and direct drive pumps were operated without problem for several hours during the peak storm surge. The gates remained closed for 18 hours and pumps were operated over a 9-hour period to keep the city from flooding. In August 2010, the grassroots group Levees.org installed a plaque, vetted and fact checked by the Louisiana State Office of Historic Preservation, at the levee breach site. The text of the plaque reads as follows: In 2017, seventeen Patterson pumps are set to be operational as part of the New Orleans Permanent Canal Closures and Pumps (PCCP) project with the 17 Street Canal receiving six large capacity and two smaller pumps. The large pumps are rated at 1,800 cfs and are the centerpiece of the project which is designed to handle a 100-year storm.


See also

*
Drainage in New Orleans Drainage in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been a major concern since the founding of the city in the early 18th century, remaining an important factor in the history of New Orleans today. The central portion of metropolitan New Orleans (New Orleans/ ...
*
London Avenue Canal The London Avenue Canal is a drainage canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, used for pumping rain water into Lake Pontchartrain. The canal runs through the 7th Ward of New Orleans from the Gentilly area to the Lakefront. It is one of the three main drai ...
*
Industrial Canal The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal ( IHNC). Th ...
*
Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navi ...
* U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works controversies (New Orleans)


References


Further reading

* Rosenthal, Sandy. ''Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina'' (Mango, 2020), non-fiction account of author’s battle to expose Army Corps of Engineers


External links


Levees.Org (non-profit flood protection group in New Orleans)

''Popular Mechanics'' article "Debunking the Myths of Hurricane Katrina" verifies that sheet piles were pulled to confirm construction according to design


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130214202933/http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/hps2/hps_outfall_canals.asp US Army Corps of Engineers Interim Closure Structure at 17th St. Canal
USACE pump construction sites
{{coord, 30, 00, 41, N, 90, 07, 19, W, display=title Canals in New Orleans Buildings and structures in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana 1850s establishments in Louisiana