In an unusual show of cooperation, U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter on Wednesday slipped an amendment into a major appropriations bill that would require the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a detailed, 18-month study to determine whether to build permanent, full-time pump stations at the ends of three New Orleans drainage canals, and adopt a "pump to the river" option to reroute some rainwater from the 17th Street Canal to the Mississippi River.

The amendment to the $34 billion fiscal 2010 energy and water appropriations bill would allow the corps to continue to build its preferred Option 1 plan while the study is under way. That plan calls for the pump stations at the Lake Pontchartrain ends of the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue canals to operate only when tropical storms threaten, and continues to use interior pump stations to push water to the lake at other times.

But the amendment requires the new pump stations to be built so they can be converted into full-time pump stations if the new study determines that the interior stations should be abandoned and deeper canals dug as part of the gravity-fed system.

That alternative was labeled Option 2 in an earlier corps study that concluded it was the preferred plan, but was too expensive. Corps officials also contend that Congress never authorized the agency to build the more comprehensive Option 2 or the pump to the river proposal, referred to as Option 2a.

The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and local officials say Option 1 would leave New Orleans and parts of Metairie vulnerable to flooding because it would not include replacement of floodwalls along the canals that were not repaired after Hurricane Katrina. The pump to the river option also would increase the capacity of the 17th Street Canal, they argue.

The appropriations bill is expected to be approved by the Senate this evening, and then will go to a conference committee, where differences with a House version -- including the study amendment -- will be hammered out. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, was unsuccessful in getting a similar provision added to the House version earlier this month.

Landrieu and Vitter had to promise Democratic and Republican leaders that their amendment would not add to the appropriations bill's cost total. The cost of the study will come from money already set aside for construction of the pump stations.

The corps has estimated the cost of Option 1 at about $800 million, including the design changes called for in the amendment, and say the stations would be completed by 2013.

The corps has estimated that Option 2 would cost $3.4 billion and take 12 years to build, while the pump to the river option could cost another $200 million.

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