Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure Deterioration, Investment, or Divestment? (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 84-94
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From page 84... ...
4 Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation of Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure Historically, construction of new infrastructure has dominated the Corps water resources budget and activities. Today, most of the favorable sites and opportunities for water project construction have been developed.
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From page 85... ...
Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation 85 The national water infrastructure is largely "built out." Compared to an earlier era, there are fewer opportunities and only a limited number of undeveloped or appropriate sites for new water resources infrastructure. New water projects will be constructed in the future, but the nation's water resources infrastructure needs increasingly are in the areas of existing project operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation.
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86 Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure ings and field visits, this committee heard a wide range of suggestions for productively moving forward. Those suggestions led the committee to identify potential future paths that might be taken with regard to Corps of Engineers infrastructure: 1.
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Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation 87 Resources from the Corps annual budget (i.e., the general fund of the U.S. Treasury)
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From page 88... ...
88 Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure Corps authority to decommission obsolete projects for which the original justification and project purpose are no longer relevant, or to divest itself of projects which are of marginal importance to the Corps mission and for which state/local government or private sector management is feasible. Across the Corps water resources infrastructure inventory, these conditions tend to be most pertinent to inland navigation facilities.
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From page 89... ...
Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation 89 Corps hydropower projects are permitted to retain and use their own revenue. Most Corps hydropower revenue is directed to the federal treasury.
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90 Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure expanded public-private partnerships in hydropower at Corps facilities. If increased funding for OMR at Corps hydropower projects will not be feasible either through federal budgeting or allowance of more projects to capture power revenue for OMR, some of the projects could be turned over to private-sector organizations to operate and maintain.
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From page 91... ...
Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation 91 This evaluation ideally would be conducted by independent and credible organization with good knowledge of Corps of Engineers functions, policies, and activities. If the Corps itself were to conduct such an evaluation, it could put the Corps in an awkward position and there could be questions about objectivity.
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From page 92... ...
92 Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure essary costs, infrastructure evolution dictated by variable degradation and failure rates, and costly negative surprises. Wise investment of limited resources in the nation's water resources infrastructure requires that priorities be established for infrastructure OMR, as well as inevitable divestment, or decommissioning, of some portions of the existing infrastructure.
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From page 93... ...
Options for Improving Operations, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation 93 lack of a process for high-level prioritization is a considerable impediment to more efficient and timely investments in critical Corps infrastructure. The lack of such a process also inhibits the ability to identify water projects that are candidates for divestment and decommissioning.
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