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Summary
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is responsible for plan-
ning, construction, operations, and maintenance of much of the nation’s
water resources infrastructure. This infrastructure includes flood control
levees, multi-purpose dams, locks, navigation channels, port and harbor
facilities, and beach protection infrastructure. The Corps of Engineers also
regulates the dredging and filling of wetlands subject to federal jurisdic -
tions. Along with its programs for flood damage reduction and support
of commercial navigation, ecosystem restoration was added as a primary
Corps mission area in 1996.
The National Research Council (NRC) Committee on U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers on Water Resources Science, Engineering, and Planning was con-
vened by the NRC at the request of the Corps of Engineers to provide
independent advice to the Corps on an array of strategic and planning
issues (the committee’s full statement of task is presented in Box 1; see
Appendix C for a listing of and biographical information on committee
members). This activity initially will extend over 5 years, during which
the committee will issue a report each year. This is the committee’s first
report.
This report presents several findings, but no recommendations, to
the Corps of Engineers based on initial investigations and discussions
with Corps leadership. It is intended to serve as a survey of the key
water resources challenges facing the Corps, the limits of what might be
expected today from the Corps, and future prospects for the agency. The
audience for the report includes not only the Corps of Engineers, but also
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2 NATIONAL WATER RESOURCE CHALLENGES FACING THE USACE
the U.S. Congress, the administration, Corps project co-sponsors, and the
many other entities that are affected by Corps projects and interact with
the agency. The report will serve as a foundational document to be refer-
enced in the committee’s future reports.
The report’s findings are as follows:
• In an earlier era of national water development, Corps of Engi-
neers civil works projects focused on construction of dams, levees,
navigation channels, and other infrastructure. Over time, Congress has
greatly broadened the Corps’ work program and responsibilities. Future
Corps water resources activities will be less dedicated to construction
of major new civil works, and more heavily focused on (1) operat-
ing, maintaining, rehabilitating, and upgrading existing infrastructure,
(2) re-allocating reservoir storage and releases among changing water
resources demands and users, and (3) providing some degree of ecosys -
tem restoration and ecological services in heavily altered riparian and
aquatic ecosystems.
• There has been a declining level of investment in the civil works
infrastructure owned and operated by the Corps of Engineers. Deferred
costs for maintaining the nation’s infrastructure for flood and hurricane
protection, and for commercial navigation, are considerable.
• Despite decreasing emphasis on new construction, Congress and
the nation will continue to rely upon the Corps for emergency response
activities and for periodic upgrades to civil works infrastructure.
• Despite declining investment levels and numbers of Corps per-
sonnel, the nation expects the Corps to provide a number of services,
including flood risk management, water-based recreation, commercial
navigation, ecosystem restoration, hydropower production, water sup -
ply, and coastal and beach protection. This situation leads to expecta-
tions that the Corps of Engineers and its civil works construction pro -
gram cannot meet consistently.
• The backlog of authorized federal water resources projects that
have not yet received appropriations, or which have begun some level
of planning or construction and await additional funds for completion,
is considerable. There is also a considerable backlog of existing water
project and infrastructure maintenance. The collective backlog of unfin-
ished work leads to projects being delayed, conducted in a stop-start
manner, and to overall inefficient project delivery.
• The modern context for water resources management involves
smaller budgets, cost sharing, an expanded range of objectives, and
inclusion of more public and private stakeholders in management deci-
sions. Two important implications of these conditions are (1) given
current budget realities, the nation may have to consider more flexible,
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NATIONAL WATER RESOURCE CHALLENGES FACING THE USACE
innovative, and lower cost solutions to achieving water-related objec -
tives, and (2) the Corps of Engineers will by necessity work in settings
with more collaboration and public and private partnerships than in the
past.
• The Corps of Engineers is increasingly challenged to provide
a wide variety of water project benefits, some of which often are not
consistent and compatible with one another. Some of these challenges
relate to inconsistencies in authorizing legislation and related regula -
tions, while some relate to the natural limits of hydrologic and ecologic
systems. As a result of these factors, the Corps increasingly finds itself
involved in controversies over shared water resources that are beyond
the agency’s mandates and capacities to fully resolve.
• The Corps of Engineers reflects a national water planning para-
dox: national water resources demands are increasing and becoming
more complex, while at the same time, national investments in water
infrastructure exhibit a declining trend. Moreover, in some parts of
the nation there are additional water management objectives relevant
to Corps project operations, such as water quality goals, in which the
agency may be requested to expand its involvement.
• The nation’s water planning needs and priorities promise to
become even more contentious, complex, and harder to anticipate, in
the future. As this report describes, the nature of water planning and
the typical water resources project have shifted over the past 50 years.
Examples of topics of priority and concern across the United States
today are improved flood risk management, efficient water infrastruc -
ture planning and investments, navigation infrastructure, water-based
recreation, hydropower generation, water supply, ecosystem restoration
and endangered species protection, water quality, and understanding
and managing water-related risks associated with hydrologic nonsta-
tionarity. The Corps of Engineers’ authorities, levels of staffing, and
resources have gone through changes over the years. At the same time,
the Corps of Engineers retains a clear leadership role in many of the
nation’s major river and aquatic systems, and there will be a contin-
ued need for an innovative and responsive Corps of Engineers to lead
efforts in addressing national water planning challenges.
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