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ARMY CORPS: Senators press Obama admin for reform  (Tuesday, November 
17, 2009)

Taryn Luntz, E&E reporter

Six senators today asked the Obama administration to explain what the 
lawmakers claim is a lag in implementing congressionally mandated 
reforms of the Army Corps of Engineers.
 
The reforms, which were written into the 2007 Water Resources 
Development Act, include instituting peer reviews of large or 
controversial Army Corps projects, conducting safety reviews for 
qualifying projects and strengthening the agency's environmental 
mitigation process.
 
In a letter 
<http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2009/11/17/document_pm_03.pdf>  
dated today, Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), 
both of whom championed the WRDA provisions, ask the administration for 
a detailed explanation of the status of the reforms.
 
"Three of the most significant of these programmatic reforms, 
independent peer review, safety assurance review, and mitigation 
reforms, became effective upon enactment," the lawmakers wrote to 
Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant Army secretary for civil works. "We are 
extremely concerned that almost two years later, little progress has 
been made to implement these critical reforms."
 
The letter also was signed by Environment and Public Works Chairwoman 
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Mary 
Landrieu (D-La.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
 
A spokesman for the Army Corps declined to comment on the letter.
 
In a separate letter 
<http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2009/11/17/document_pm_02.pdf> 
, the senators urge the White House to issue "clear directives" to the 
corps when the administration revises the agency's planning guidelines.
 
The WRDA bill gave the Army Corps two years to update its 26-year-old 
principles and guidelines, mandating that the agency weigh environmental 
considerations, not just economic ones, when it considers projects.
 
The Army Corps' rewrite process recently was pre-empted by a White House 
effort to revise the guidelines and expand their application to other 
federal agencies (Greenwire 
<http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/07/14/archive/3> , July 14).
 
"As the Council on Environmental Quality works to modernize the P&G, we 
ask you to ensure that any new P&G sets forth clear and compulsory 
policies that guide the Corps of Engineers as they plan and construct 
water resources projects," the lawmakers wrote to CEQ Chairwoman Nancy 
Sutley. "Among these should be clear directives to avoid adverse 
environmental impacts to the maximum extent possible, along with 
specific requirements that ensure compliance."
 
The senators urge CEQ to require the Army Corps to use nonstructural and 
restoration approaches to water problems, rather than structural 
solutions such as dams and levees, whenever practicable.
 
Such an approach "would provide the type of direction needed to preserve 
the natural systems that can protect communities facing catastrophic 
flooding, droughts and sea-level rise caused by climate change," they say.
 
CEQ plans to release a draft of the new rules in the coming month, 
spokeswoman Christine Glunz said.
 
Glunz declined to discuss its contents in detail but said the draft 
revision will reflect the congressional mandate to modernize the guidelines
 
Click here 
<http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2009/11/17/document_pm_03.pdf>  
to read the senators' letter asking for a status update of the corps 
reforms.
 
Click here 
<http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2009/11/17/document_pm_02.pdf>  
to read the senators' letter urging "clear directives" to the corps in 
the planning guidelines revisions.
 

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