The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--
it's not just the military's nerd squad,
it's also the place you want to go if you want something built.
Even if no one needs it. Roy Wood Jr. has the story.
WOOD:
it's the largest public engineering organization
in the world.
700 military personnel, over 30,000 civilians.
And these guys build things like
the Washington Monument. Damn.
The Panama Canal. Damn.
And dams. Damn!
These guys are bad asses, and I'm sure
journalist and Corps expert Michael Grunwald agrees.
Lately, they built
a lot of environmentally destructive boondoggles.
WOOD:
They build a lot of stuff that nobody needs
that tend to do a lot of environmental damage.
WOOD:
I don't care about the environment.
Well, are you paying for it.
-Who paying for it? -You're paying for it.
-You's a liar. I ain't paying for it. -American taxpayers
-are paying for it. -(scoffs) I ain't got no bill.
I didn't get no bill from the Army Corps.
They've never really been accountable to the taxpayers.
Members of Congress have always protected them.
WOOD:
they wasting taxpayer dollars. But here's a billion-dollar
transformer thing on the Mississippi River
that the Corps built to handle barge traffic.
Looks like a great investment to me.
-No. -WOOD:
environmentalist Brad Walker.
This was built to, uh,
handle barge traffic that has never come.
Nowhere near what they used to project its construction.
But how do you know it's not coming yet?
How are you so sure
that there aren't multiple barges coming in late at night
that you don't even see?
It's barge night life going, bruh.
You know the river don't even get popping till 3:00.
It's crazy on the river at night.
Yeah, it doesn't really matter what time,
because the Corps keeps track of all this.
It's their statistics that we use to check
how much barge traffic is going up and down the river.
WOOD:
Well, let's check out those statistics then.
The blue line represents actual barge traffic
and the green line represents
the Corps of Engineers projections.
Looks like those projections are pretty accurate to me.
Look... Oh, wait, why is the blue line doing that?
Come back, blue line. Damn it!
Soon it's gonna hardly be any damager traffic,
and the Corps knows this.
If the Army Corps of Engineers keeps track of barge traffic,
why didn't they just go, "Hey...
we ain't building that (bleep). That's stupid."
I wish they would.
But the Army Corps considered the barge industry their client.
WOOD:
with seven new projects for the barge lobby
that would cost billions of dollars?
Well, you got to remember there's this
kind of iron triangle that goes on between the Army Corps,
members of Congress and the special interests
that benefit from these projects.
WOOD:
since my girlfriend and her sorority sister
was with me and we had that... (clears throat)
Uh, n-never mind.
Look, I had to get to the bottom of this.
So I went to the man at the top-- the head
of the Corps of Engineers, General Thomas Bostick.
The Corps of Engineers doesn't decide
on which projects to do.
The congress authorizes projects.
It's good that you get your orders from Congress
and not the lobbyists, correct?
Absolutely.
Not the lobby, 'cause you can't all be in bed.
That's just awkward. That's... ugh.
Now, what I will say is we work with a lot of the leaders,
uh, on... in...
that-that may have ties to the-to the lobby
that help with ideas on what they recommend,
uh, the Corps of Engineers and Congress,
uh, pursue as priorities.
WOOD:
to fund certain projects, Congress authorizes
the Corps of Engineers to do those projects,
and the Corps builds those projects,
which pleasures the lobbyists.
Damn, I guess that is like my iron triangle.
Except, in this case, taxpayers get (bleep).
But it turns out this goes beyond wasting tax dollars,
as hater number two showed me in New Madrid, Missouri.
To benefit the farm lobby the Corps plans to drain
these wetlands right here
by building a new levee. Just one problem.
WALKER: If we put that levee in here,
other areas are gonna be at risk of getting flooded.
It'll affect people in Kentucky, it'll affect people
in southern Illinois, it'll affect
people upstream in Missouri.
WOOD:
Where have I heard that before?
The worst Army Corps failure in its history
is the drowning of New Orleans.
WOOD:
that failed during Katrina. And the Corps drained
nearby wetlands that may have further protected New Orleans
in the first place. And now critics say
proposed levees like this one in New Madrid
create flood risks upstream? Hold on.
That's St. Louis.
I don't want to lose St. Louis, man.
That's the home of Nelly.
I love St. Louis.
So you're saying Nelly is safe?
I'm not saying Nelly's safe.
We're talking Nelly, man. This made classics.
Down, down, baby,
yo' street in the Range Rover.
Boom, boom,
street sweeper.
Cocked back, ready to let it go.
Well, anyway, uh,
we want to protect the American people to the degree we can,
or reduce their risk.
With some of the projects that you do,
I think we should just assign priority levels.
This is priority A,
for "absolutely, let's do this project"
all the way down to priority D,
as in "dumb",
as it "don't do this",
as in "demolish the idea".
We don't even consider priority D projects.
Except for New Madrid.
Yeah, New Madrid, the concrete transformer thingy,
those other barge projects...
Here's the thing-- the corps does
do plenty of A and B projects,
but as long as they keep getting these Ds...
man, Nelly, you better carry a life vest with you.
Learn how to swim or something.