BUILDING STRONG®

Risk Management

Center

Water Resources Management Challenges and Opportunities

US Army Corps of Engineers

BUILDING STRONG®

Presentation to

National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies

Steven L. Stockton

Director of Civil Works

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

December 9, 2013

BUILDING STRONG®

1787

1812

1824

1853

1927

1933

1956

1970

2005

2013

“America’s history is, in large part, a story of infrastructure.”

Settlers on the Ohio River

1927 Headlines Hurricane Katrina

Fort McHenry

Fort Peck DamFlorida Everglades

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The Power of Leadership

“It is because we have undertaken this gigantic task that will take us more than a generation to complete, because we have undertaken it now, and the people of the United

States understand the objective of the idea, that I feel very certain we are going to carry it through to a

successful completion.”- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

at Fort Peck Dam construction site, 1934

1927 vs. 2011 Mississippi River Floods

1927 2011

• Approximately 500 deaths• 27,000 sq. mi. (70,000 sq.

km) inundated• 637,000 people dislocated• 162,000 homes flooded• 30,000 minorities forced to

work on levees – accelerated “Great Migration to North”

• Only 1 death as direct result of flood

• 10,000 sq. mi. (26,000 sq. km) inundated

• 24,500 people dislocated• $238 B Damages

Prevented• Lifetime Benefit to Cost

Ratio 43:1

Hurricane Katrina vs. Hurricane IsaacKatrina, 2005 Isaac, 2012

• 1,833 deaths• $130 B in Recovery Cost• 80% of New Orleans underwater• Widespread violence and looting – police

diverted from rescue efforts• Spread of waterborne disease• 1.7 million insurance claims • 90,000 sq. mi. impacted• 90% of New Orleans population

evacuated• ~130,000 people permanently settled

elsewhere

• 5 deaths in U.S.• 7,700 people evacuated• Minimal Damage Inside Hurricane

and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System

• $2.35 billion in property damage Outside of Protected Area

• ~1,000,000 homes without electric power

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Lockport Lock and Dam,

Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal,

Illinois River

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To Meet Future Needs, U.S. Infra-structure Spending Must Increase

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Infra-

structure

StrategyBudget

Development

Methods of Delivery

Transforming Civil Works

Planning

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Planning Modernization

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Chief’s Reports

Education& Training

3x3x3

SmartPlanning

Portfolio Reduction

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Budget Development

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Alternative Financing

WatershedPilots

Smart InvestmentsManagement Controls

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Methods of Delivery

Buildingthe

BenchPolicy

Guidance

Process

Improve-

ment Centers of

ExpertiseSy

stem

s

Supp

ort

TechnicalCompetence

Acquisition

Strategies

FederalSupport

ToolboxInteragency

Collaboratio

n

Delivering Servicesto the Nation

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Infrastructure StrategyAsset Management Life Cycle Management

Kentucky River Lock #2, in service

since 1839

Alternative Financing

Replacement Value= $250 B

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Alternative Financing

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Hot Topics

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Administration Initiatives

Principles &Requirements

Waters of the U.S.

Water Supply Rulemaking

Nationwide Permits

Water Resources Development Act (WRDA)

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Waters of the U. S. Rulemaking

• Supreme court cases• SWANCC - 2001• Carabell/Rapanos – 2006

Have resulted in confusion regarding which waters are jurisdictional and which are not jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act.

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Rulemaking Intent• Clarify CWA protection.• Implement court decisions and current

science.• Improve predictability and provide

greater clarity for all CWA programs.• Follow Administrative Procedure Act,

allow for agency and public comment, binding and legally defensible.

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Value to the Nation• Transparency, Predictability for the

Regulated Public • Overall benefits related to protecting clean

Water through clear rule focused on aquatic resources.

• Greater national consistency for all CWA programs.

• Potential administrative and economic efficiencies.

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Water Supply Rulemaking• Authorities:

• Flood Control Act of 1944 § 6, 33 U.S.C. § 708 (“Section 6”), • Water Supply Act of 1958, 43 U.S.C. §390b (“WSA”)

• Recent litigation addressing Corps’ interpretation of its authority• Clarifying interpretation of statutory term “surplus water,” scope to

make contracts for use of surplus water in Corps reservoirs, and methodology for determining a reasonable charge under such contracts

• Clarifying scope and limitations of authority to include storage in planned or existing Corps reservoirs for municipal and industrial water supply, and methodology for determining amount and cost of storage

• Scope and positions to be taken still under deliberation within Administration

• Notice and comment rulemaking process (release date TBD)

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Moving National Infrastructure Policy

Reforms:• Limit feasibility studies to 3 years, $3 M• Penalty for agencies failing to render decisions within 180 days of Corps completion

of NEPA process.• Credit for nonfederal entities building flood damage reduction projects• Pilot program for nonfederal construction • Minimum annual HMTF spending, moving toward total annual HMTF receipts and

interest.• Use of certified project managers, risk-based cost estimates, acquisition procedures

and best management practices. • Inland Waterways User Board to meet at least twice a year.• Encourages development of hydropower generation at existing Corps projects.• Amends the Planning Assistance to States program to include levee safety.• Re-issued regulations regarding vegetation on levees

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Senate Water Resources Development Act (S.601)

Passed 15 May 2013,Vote 83-14

House Water Resources Reform & Development Act (H.R. 3080)

Passed 23 October 2013,Vote 417-3

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Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Principles

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Principle: Work Together to Develop Long-Term Strategies

• Involve stakeholders in scoping, development, implementation, and monitoring of integrated solutions.

• Work across the Federal government to promote alignment of agency actions.

• Leverage partnerships to maximize all appropriate sources of funding, resources, and expertise.

• Work with State and local partners to sequence and focus rebuilding and restoration.

• Align and deliver data, tools, and information (e.g., physical, ecological, economic, etc.) in easily accessible formats.

• Ensure the Federal government provides useful and timely technical assistance and information.

• Learn from the experience of Superstorm Sandy by conducting assessments of what worked and what did not.

Promote public safety.

Protect and restore natural resources and functions of the coast.

Enhance coastal resilience

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Principle: Improve Resilience• Promote integration of natural and built systems. • Use adaptive management to encourage flexible decision-

making. • Seek to modify critical infrastructure in response to

changing conditions.• Advance understanding of a system-based approach and

the benefits of the natural environment and its “services,” including coastal buffering.

• Support sustainable economic activities and strengthening of existing social institutions.

• Identify economically-viable solutions that minimize impacts to the natural functions of floodplains and ecosystems.

• Work together to identify priority actions on a system or subsystem basis.

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• Align investments to ensure that water dependent uses of the coast, particularly ports and related infrastructure, support working waterfronts that are more efficient, safe, secure, and environmentally sustainable.

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Principle: Increase Awareness of Risks and Consequences

• Improve understanding among decision makers.

• Encourage risk-informed decisions that consider uncertain changes in the natural and built environments, including the effects of climate change, land-use change, and coastal development.

• Invest in risk communication efforts, including disclosure of risks that have not or cannot be mitigated in an economically feasible manner.

• Encourage coordination of, and common approaches to characterization of risks, vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies.

• Develop and share user-friendly information and tools for assessing impacts, managing risks, and risk/reward tradeoffs related to different project options.

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One Stop Shop Data

Portal

Leading Edge Models and

Tools

Collaboration Connection

Watertoolbox.us

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Moving IWRM ForwardIWRM Certification Program

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• Certification program offers a commitment to the principles of IWRM

• Standards and criteria for US water resources projects at all levels (fed, regional, state and local)

• Increase understanding of the benefits of IWRM principles and projects that meet this approach (Congress, OMB…)

• USACE expects to have program developed by June 2014

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The Goal:

A resilient, reliable and sustainable 21st Century infrastructure that assures our

national and economic security.

How Do We Get There? Legislation and Policy

Leadership and National Will Education and Strategic Communication

Your Support26

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What Can You Do?

• Tell the Story

• Help us transform the Civil Works process

• Educate and inform

• Help prioritize greater return on investments

• Continue to partner with stakeholders, industry and beneficiaries

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Questions?

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The Key: Collaboration

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Promote opportunities and mechanisms for collaborative water resources and management

(National Report: “Responding to National Water Resources Challenges,” 2010)

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Gilbert Fowler White

• Bring safe water to all the world’s people as a human right

• Reduce significantly the global toll of hazard deaths and damages

• Facilitate peace through joint water development and management

• Make geography (in particular) and science (in general) more useful to the world, and

• Enable people to coexist with nature and develop sustainably.

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Human Adjustment to Floods

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“It has become common in scientific as well as popular literature to consider floods as great natural adversaries which man seeks

persistently to overpower. …This simple and prevailing view neglects in large measure the possible feasibility of other forms of adjustment.”

“Floods are 'acts of God,' but flood losses are largely acts of man.”

“Dealing with floods in all their capricious and violent aspects is a problem in part of adjusting human occupance to the floodplain

environment so as to utilize most effectively the natural resources of the plain, and, at the same time, of applying feasible and practicable

measures for minimizing the detrimental impacts of floods.”

1945. Gilbert F. White. University of Chicago Department of Geography.

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Moving IWRM Forward (Cont.)IWRM Awards Program

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• USACE is committed to incentivize the use of IWRM as a holistic approach to solve the Nation’s water resources challenges

• 10 projects will be evaluated against criteria

• A multi-purpose, objective outcomes, stakeholders, basin/watershed based criteria

• Scheduled by Nov 2014

BUILDING STRONG®

Moving National Infrastructure Policy

Reforms:• Limit feasibility studies to 3 years, $3 M• Penalty for agencies failing to render decisions within 180 days of Corps completion

of NEPA process.• Credit for nonfederal entities building flood damage reduction projects• Pilot program for nonfederal construction • Minimum annual HMTF spending, moving toward total annual HMTF receipts and

interest.• Use of certified project managers, risk-based cost estimates, acquisition procedures

and best management practices. • Inland Waterways User Board to meet at least twice a year.• Encourages development of hydropower generation at existing Corps projects.• Amends the Planning Assistance to States program to include levee safety.• Re-issued regulations regarding vegetation on levees

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Senate Water Resources Development Act (S.601)

Passed 15 May 2013,Vote 83-14

House Water Resources Reform & Development Act (H.R. 3080)

Passed 23 October 2013,Vote 417-3

BUILDING STRONG®

Live with floods• Individuals and

small communities adapt to nature’s rhythm.

Utilize the floodplain• Fertile land in

floodplain is drained for food production.

• Permanent communities develop on the floodplain.

Control floods• Large scale

structural approaches are implemented through organized governance.

Reduce flood damages• A recognition

that engineering alone has limitations.

• Effort to increase the resilience of communities should a flood occur.

Manage risk• Not all problems

are equal.• Risk

management is an effective and efficient means to maximize the benefit of limited investment.

From Sayers et al , 2012

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Evolution of Approaches inManaging Flood Risk

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Shared Flood Risk Management

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Outreach

Natural Storage

Structural

Nonstructural

Contingency Plans

Building Codes

Zoning

Insurance

Residual Risk

Federal / State / Local

Federal / State / Local

Federal / State / Local

Federal / State / Local

Federal / State / Local / Individual

State / Local

Local

Individual / NFIP

Ris

k

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Flood Risk Lessons Learned1. Absolute protection from floods is not possible. Plan for floods that exceed your

system’s capacity; eventually one will come.

2. Do not not rely on single structural approach. Implement a portfolio of measures.

3. Risks must be identified and decisions made based on relative risk – not everyone will get the same protection.

4. Decisions must be made with imperfect knowledge - the future will be different from the past.

5. Incorporate climate change assumptions into water resources planning and models

6. Responsibilities must be clear - all groups must share responsibilities and take local actions.

7. Life-cycle infrastructure needs and costs must be addressed. Mitigation of Disaster Risk Before an Event is Much More Cost Effective than Recovery From a Disaster Once it Occurs

8. The effects of a disaster are felt well outside the immediately affected area

9. Effective communication of risk is essential.

10. Full recovery takes a long time

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Nationwide Permits • Jeopardy Biological Opinion: In consultation with NMFS• 22 of 50 could jeopardize listed species or adversely modify or

destroy critical habitat• USACE has agreed to adopt 11 measures to increase protection• Discussions continue about impervious surface cover in

watersheds• USACE has offered to do rulemaking to require pre-construction

notifications (PCNs) for activities authorized by the 8 NWPs• Proposed expansion of programmatic consultation beyond the

2012 NWPs• Army-NMFS continue to discuss issues, with involvement by DOJ

& CEQ.

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