From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board (OLB) was the body of commissioners that oversaw the Orleans Levee District (OLD) which supervised the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. The role of the OLB changed over time. Prior to Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the OLB developed land and sold it to raise money to build and improve flood protection levees. After Betsy, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1965 which directed the Army Corps of Engineers to design and build the hurricane flood protection system enveloping New Orleans. Owing to the 1965 legislation, the OLB's duties were limited to collecting the 30% cost share for project design and construction, and to maintaining and operating completed flood protection structures.
In the wake of the 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, two new regional flood protection authorities were created to replace the OLB as well as the East Jefferson Levee Board and the Lake Borgne Levee Board (St. Bernard Parish). Most of the OLD now falls under the jurisdiction of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East, charged with operation and maintenance of all flood-protection infrastructure for Greater New Orleans on the East Bank of the Mississippi River. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - West possesses the same metro-wide jurisdiction for the West Bank of the Mississippi, and it includes that portion of the Orleans Levee District on the West Bank (i.e., Algiers).
After Katrina, it was widely believed that this different form of levee board governance might be more appropriate for a major marine terminal like New Orleans. Nevertheless, the issue of whether the commissioners of the OLB Engineering Committee acted incompetently or negligently regarding the catastrophic flooding of August 2005 has not been conclusively demonstrated or proven.[1]