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Issues
> Water > Printer
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The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) spends upwards of $1 billion
annually on flood-control construction and repair projects.
Rather than reducing flood losses, however, the projects have
increased the potential for even more severe flood damage. Many
of the projects encourage high-risk development in flood-prone
areas, reduce incentives for strong state and local floodplain
management, and eliminate the natural and beneficial functions
of floodplains. Current Status Congress provided more than $900 million for the Corps' flood control construction program in the fiscal year 2000 Energy and Water Appropriations bill (H.R. 2605), an increase from the $800 million appropriated in fiscal year 1999. In 1995, the Clinton Administration proposed major policy reforms intended to phase out federal responsibility for the construction of local-scale flood control projects. In the 1996 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), Congress reduced the federal cost-share for future flood control authorizations to 65 percent, but at the same time authorized dozens of new local flood control projects or modifications at the 75 percent federal cost-share level or greater. In WRDA 1999, Congress established
the Flood Hazard Mitigation and Riverine Ecosystem Restoration
Program (called "Challenge 21") to allow the Corps
to develop "non-structural" approaches to flooding
problems such as voluntary buyouts and relocations. A shift by
Corps from traditional "structural" projects to non-structural
approaches, such as "Challenge 21", could ultimately
save taxpayers billions of dollars in averting repetitive flood
damages to the same homes and businesses located in floodplains.
This shift will also have substantial environmental benefits
by preserving natural floodplain and wetland habitats. Despite
the establishment of "Challenge 21", Congress has been
slow to make this shift in national flood control policy and
continues to focus on funding many wasteful dams and levee projects. Project Hurts Taxpayers Despite
$38 billion in federal outlays for flood control construction
from 1960 to 1985, the project has not controlled flood damage.
In
the past five years, the nation's average flood damages have
exceeded $8 billion annually - quadruple the average loss levels
in 1951 when adjusted for inflation. Most projects benefit only local interests. Less
expensive, long-term alternatives exist. Voluntary buyouts
and relocation of homes after the 1993 flood in St. Charles County,
Missouri enabled the local communities to avoid major damages
when the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers experienced substantial
flooding again in 1995. Federal disaster-relief costs in the
county - a flat and vulnerable stretch of floodplain north of
St. Louis - dropped 99 percent from $26.1 million in 1993 to
less than $300,000 in 1995. By contrast, the enlargement of a
small agricultural levee in St. Louis County, Missouri led to
development of a floodplain for commercial and light industry
that resulted in some of the greatest flood-related monetary
damages from the 1993 Midwest Flood. Through subsidized flood-insurance
and disaster payments, taxpayers paid to help repair more than
$200 million in damages. Project Hurts the Environment Flood control projects reduce or eliminate the floodplain's ability to filter runoff, provide fish and wildlife habitat, and contribute the organic nutrients that form the base of the aquatic food chain.
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