Over the next several months, EnviroWonk will be exploring the politics of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. Today's post is the first in the series.

The Army Corps of Engineers, an agency synonymous with incompetence, corruption, and superfluous work for over 100 years, may finally be held responsible for the flood damages sustained during Hurricane Katrina as a result of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (cleverly nicknamed "Mr. Go").

For years, Louisiana officials and environmentalists have asked the Corps to shut down Mr. Go due to its infrequent use by vessels, its contribution to the region's wetlands erosion, and the fact that it provides a path for tidal surges to reach New Orleans during big storms. Instead, the Corps built additional levees all around New Orleans -- we all know how well that turned out -- so flooded homeowners took their grievances to the courts.

The Corps argued that since the federal government is protected by law from being sued if a flood control measure fails (say, like levees breaking during a category 5 hurricane that starts with the letter K), the homeowners had no standing. But the federal judge rejected that argument because Mr. Go was built for navigation and not flood control, and had funding separate from that of the region's flood control projects.

Since the Corps has been re-engineering America's waterways for over 200 years, you would think by now they would have solved the nation's flood problems. A study conducted by the non-profit American Rivers collected a decade's worth of analysis of the Corps' work by the government, independent experts, and the Corps itself. We recommend you take a look at the whole 6-page report yourself, as there are too many delightfully scathing comments to include, but here are a few.

From the Corps investigation as to why the levees failed during Katrina, "The New Orleans levees failed catastrophically during Hurricane Katrina because of poor design and flawed construction. In planning the system, the Corps did not take into account poor soil quality, and failed to account for the sinking of land…. The system was designed to protect against a relatively low-strength hurricane, and the Corps did not respond to repeated warnings from NOAA that a stronger hurricane should have been the standard. The Corps also did not re-examine the heights of the levees after it had been warned about significant subsidence."

The American Society of Civil Engineers published a report for Congress advising it to essentially have more capable engineers review any Corps project proposal.

A 2000 investigation conducted by the Department of the Army Inspector General -- the Corps itself -- regarding accusations of inappropriate actions taken in the upper Mississippi water basin found, "that the Corps deceptively and intentionally manipulated data in an attempt to justify a $1.2 billion expansion of locks on the Upper Mississippi River, and that the Corps has an institutional bias for constructing costly, large scale structural projects."

Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced S. 564: Water Resources Planning and Modernization Act of 2007. Senator Feingold acknowledged the federal government's responsibility for the flooding in New Orleans and sought to prevent the Corps from destroying a major American city again by requiring independent review of all projects over $40 million, as well as the periodic analysis of Corps principles and guidelines, which have not been updated since 1983.

The bill was referred to the Environment and Public Works Committee last year, but no action has been taken since. But fear not, New Orleans residents, you still have another month before hurricane season starts, so now would be a good time to ask Sen. McCain the status of this bill and how he plans on reforming the Corps. It's not like he has anything else to do until the Republican convention this summer.