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Science Panel says Corps Needs Infusion to Boost Aging Water Project Maintenance, Rehabilitation by Staff Columbia Basin Bulletin, October 12, 2012

". . . annual revenue to the U.S. Treasury from Corps hydropower sales is in the range $2-3 billion per year.
This represents over half the size of the entire Corps' annual appropriation."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces an "unsustainable situation" in maintaining its national water projects at acceptable levels of performance, according to a new report from the National Research Council.

The report suggests expanding revenues and strengthening partnerships among the private and public sectors as options to manage the Corps' aging water infrastructure, which includes levees and dams. The report can be found at: www.nap.edu/

The report explores the status of operations, maintenance and rehabilitation of Corps water resources infrastructure, and identifies options for the Corps and the nation in regard to setting maintenance and rehabilitation priorities.

Corps water resources infrastructure affects river flows and levels on many of the nation's large river systems, including the Columbia, Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers.

"Much of the Corps of Engineers water resources infrastructure was constructed decades ago and many of these structures are nearing, or have exceeded, design lives of 50 years. For example, there are today approximately 700 dams across the nation that were constructed Corps of Engineers," the report says. "Approximately 95 percent of the dams managed by the Corps are more than 30 years old, and 52 percent have reached or exceeded the 50-year service lives for which they were designed."

Since the mid-1980s, dwindling federal resources have limited funds available for water infrastructure operations, maintenance, and rehabilitation, and there is a considerable backlog of deferred maintenance, according to a summary of the report, which is the second in a series of five reports from the Committee on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Science, Engineering, and Planning.

"The country's water resources infrastructure is largely built-out, and there are limited sites to construct new projects," said David Dzombak, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, and director of the Steinbrenner Institute of Environmental Education and Research at Carnegie Mellon University.

"Today, the Corps focuses mainly on sustaining its existing structures, some of which are in states of significant deterioration and disrepair," Dzombak said. "Funding for maintenance and rehabilitation of Corps water resources infrastructure - which includes navigation locks and dams, flood management levees and dams, and other facilities - has been inadequate for decades.

"We now have a scenario where the water infrastructure is wearing out faster than it is being replaced or rehabilitated. Some components could be decommissioned or divested, but the Corps does not have the authority to do this."

The Corps is authorized to carry out projects in several mission areas that include navigation, flood risk management, ecosystem restoration, hurricane and storm damage reduction, water supply, hydroelectric power generation, and recreation. Its extensive infrastructure consists of approximately 700 dams, 14,000 miles of federal levees, and 12,000 miles of river navigation channel and control structures.

Through its 75 hydropower plants and installed generation capacity of 20,500 megawatts (MW), the Corps owns and operates approximately one-fourth of the nation's hydropower capacity, according to the report.

"Most of its generating capacity is in the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS), with much of the remaining capacity in its Missouri River dams. The Corps' Columbia (and Snake River) and Missouri River hydropower generation capacity combined represents about 75 percent of the Corps' national generating capacity (USACE, 2012a)," the report says. "Average annual energy generation from Corps projects is approximately 70 billion kWh (worth approximately $5 billion at current wholesale prices for power), and annual revenue to the U.S. Treasury from Corps hydropower sales is in the range $2-3 billion per year (Sale, 2010). This represents over half the size of the entire Corps' annual appropriation."

Because of its many different authorities and programs, the Corps' successes in addressing maintenance and rehabilitation issues in one mission area often do not transfer easily to other mission areas, the report says.

The Corps' division and district offices set some priorities for maintenance and rehabilitation of existing projects within annual budgets. However, there is no defined distribution of responsibility among Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Corps for national-level prioritization of investments in maintenance and rehabilitation for existing water infrastructure, the report says. For major rehabilitation projects, decisions about funding are the responsibility of Congress and OMB.

A more systematic approach toward water infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation will require breaking with some management traditions and practices, the committee said. For example, for Congress and OMB to place higher priority on maintenance issues, some reorientation away from a current strong focus on new projects via periodic Water Resources Development Acts is needed.

In addition, more specific direction from the executive branch and Congress regarding priorities for maintenance investments will be crucial to sustaining the Corps' high-priority and most valuable infrastructure, the committee emphasized. Decommissioning or divesting some components should also be considered.

The committee said that partnerships with states, communities, and the private sector could yield new resources and more efficient methods, especially in hydropower generation, flood risk management, and port and harbor maintenance. Based on other hydropower systems such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the committee estimated that Corps hydropower revenues could be increased by rehabilitating and upgrading hydropower projects to improve efficiency of turbine and related power generation and distribution systems.

With regard to flood risk management, reducing federal resources available to construct traditional, structural projects would present opportunities to implement nonstructural flood control options, such as zoning and building codes, that often are efficient, cost less, and provide greater environmental benefits. They also offer a chance for the Corps to extend its partnerships with local communities in providing technical advice and other types of support.

Maintaining the inland navigation system presents especially formidable challenges and choices for the Corps. Federal resources for construction and rehabilitation have declined steadily, and proposals to generate additional revenue by charging lockage fees to system users have been resisted historically. Parts of the system could be decommissioned, but that must be decided by Congress.

Keeping the status quo, the Corps will continue to operate its existing water infrastructure with inadequate funding for all operations, maintenance and rehabilitation needs. That will entail more frequent infrastructure failure and negative social, economic, and public safety consequences, the committee said.

The report calls for an independent investigation of the opportunities for additional partnerships for operations and maintenance of Corps water infrastructure. Examples of such partnerships include those developed with private entities by state and local governments for port operation.

Given the complexities of each Corps mission area, opportunities for new arrangements and greater efficiencies need to be investigated separately and carefully for each mission area, the report says.

"Opportunities exist for expansion of revenue capture from water resources infrastructure, especially for inland navigation and hydropower projects. However, legal and other barriers will necessitate congressional action to expand such revenue streams," the report says.

The report was sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are independent, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under an 1863 congressional charter.

Panel members, who serve pro bono as volunteers, are chosen by the Academies for each study based on their expertise and experience and must satisfy the Academies' conflict-of-interest standards. The resulting consensus reports undergo external peer review before completion.

For more information, visit national-academies.org/studycommitteprocess.pdf.

A report summary can be found at: dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/Corps-Infrastructure-Report-Brief-Final.pdf