Fate Of New Orleans Sealed With Construction Of Missouri River Dams

PRINCETON BOROUGH - The flood-ravaged fate of New Orleans was sealed in 1935 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Fort Peck Dam and 12 more big dams that divert sediment from reinforcing the Mississippi Delta, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said at Princeton University last night.

Babbitt, who served as secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001, gave the 2005 Taplin Environmental Lecture in an appearance sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy. Now a Washington lawyer, Babbitt was promoting his new book, "Cities in the Wilderness." In the book, Babbitt argues the nation needs a comprehensive land use policy, balancing development with the need to preserve the environment and natural resources. He said the familiar mantra that land use is a local issue amounts to a national policy promoting uncontrolled development.

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Babbitt said the notion that effective land use policy could be a local issue is absurd, "as if the mayor of New Orleans could somehow manage the Mississippi River." He said the federal government could require states to make comprehensive land-use plans that would protect watersheds, open space and key eco-systems by making the plans a condition of receiving federal highway funds.

Babbitt, who holds degrees in geology, geophysics and law, said this change in philosophy will not come easily. "Land-use planning is not a phrase I heard in eight years in Washington. If I had uttered those words, I would have been summoned to the White House for some counseling about the need of the president and the Congress to get re-elected," he said.

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