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Flood board nominating panel eyes Jindal bills

by Walter Pierce

The panel that selects nominees for a controversial New Orleans area flood control board - a board that is suing more than 90 oil, gas and pipeline companies - is set to discuss legislation affecting its independence.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The panel that selects nominees for a controversial New Orleans area flood control board - a board that is suing more than 90 oil, gas and pipeline companies - is set to discuss legislation affecting its independence.

Thursday's agenda for the panel's meeting in New Orleans includes a discussion of pending legislation for the session that starts next week.

One bill already filed would give the governor the power to reject the committee's nominees for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. That's the board that filed the oil industry lawsuit last year, saying the industry's coastal work over the decades has contributed to the erosion of wetlands that form a natural hurricane buffer for New Orleans.

Gov. Bobby Jindal opposes the lawsuit.