According to this article in the  Thursday, April 03, 2008
the New Orleans Times- Picayune, there's a discussion about filling in borrow pits used for material to upgrade levees.
Seems like the pits could be used for something....
see
CONSTRUCTING LEVEES CREATES DILEMMA /
CORPS PONDERS: SHOULD PITS BE FILLED IN?

at
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1207200010279920.xml&coll=1
 

once you fill the clay borrow pit with sand from the sand borrow pit - will you need to refill the sand pit then?  if that is in the river than what will the impact of that sand mining operation be on sediment transport in the river?    What about repairing the roads that will be completely destroyed by 100,000 dump trucks going back and forth with loads of clay and then with loads of sand backfill.. Perhaps they should have thought about a final grading plan plus the environmental permits (that the rest of us need when we construct dams and levee's) before they started digging those clay pits.

why don't we all just live above sea level? that would be much more practical in my opinion.

Sounds like they have started the earthwork for the region's newest landfills.  All they have to do now is get their permits, install a liner system and start filling!

These pits would make fine lakes and ponds with a armoured shore for wave erosion.

Fence them in. Call them fish farms. Then lease to fish farmers.

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com

A little concrete should make some great swimming pools with high dives. In several years we may have some olympic athletes thanking the government for not filling in the holes.

All the provided comments aside, there is no technical reason to fill the pits.

True but if they can be put to a good use, it would be different for a gov't project

Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com

it all a waste. political spending to try and make a few people happy that their hometown was saved. couldn't the previous land (prior to being dug up) be used more effectively than to build up levees? it's sinking a massive amount of money and resources in to something that doesn't need to be "fixed" at the expense of a nation. how about spending that money to fix all the broken roads and bridges instead? or maybe even to pay our fine fighting soldiers a few more dollars for protecting this great country?

Everything in New Orleans seems to be political (legally or illegally).

Considering the power and number of the Levee Commissioners (I think that is the correct term) anything can happen.

When I was there for 6 months after Katrina, the Corps of Engineers wanted to deal with one levee commission and the locals volunteered to go from 13 to 11. I don't know the final result.

You have to go a long way north to get decent aggregate and it comes by barge. If it is for a park that can be flooded, you can grow some grass on most anything.