Desire for Army Corps Reform Stalls Water Projects Bill

(7 October, 2002 — Washington)  Bipartisan demand for reform of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers forced Congressional leaders today to delay consideration of legislation authorizing new water projects.

“Most members of Congress are simply unwilling to give the green light to new Army Corps water projects until meaningful reforms are considered,” said Environmental Defense water resources specialist Scott Faber. 

Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-WI), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Tom Tancredo (D-CO), Peter Defazio (D-OR), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) hoped to offer amendments to require independent peer review of large and controversial Corps projects, update methods for calculating benefits and costs, and to tighten standards for environmental mitigation of Army Corps projects.  Congressional leaders had placed the Water Resources Development Act of 2002 on the “suspension calendar,” which prohibits amendments.  But today, the vote was postponed.

The move to delay consideration follows a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report outlining flaws with a Corps study of a $108 million North Carolina inlet project.  The report is just the latest in a series criticizing Corps practices.

“Congress wants the opportunity to consider amendments that will ensure that future Corps water projects are economically and environmentally sound,” said Faber, who applauded the decision to delay the vote.  “The evidence supporting the need for Corps reform is simply too great to ignore.”

The Army’s Inspector General (IG), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the GAO all recently concluded that the Corps exaggerates economic benefits and underestimates the environmental impacts of large water projects.  In addition, the GAO found that the Corps frequently fails to quickly and fully mitigate project impacts on the environment.  Three NAS panels have also endorsed independent review of costly or controversial projects, and called for modern methods of calculating benefits and costs.