Who knew? Environmental assistance? Anna E. Normand lays it all out in this CRS InFocus two-pager (updated 26 January 2021): 'Army Corps of Engineers: Environmental Infrastructure Assistance'.
Download CRS_InFocus_Report_USACE_Env_Infra_Asst_26January2021
Overview
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) undertakes water resources development projects pursuant to authorizing statutes and the receipt of appropriations. Traditional USACE projects for navigation, flood control, and ecosystem restoration are authorized in omnibus authorization bills often titled Water Resource Development Acts (WRDAs). Since1992,Congress also has authorized and provided for USACE assistance with planning, design, and construction of municipal drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects in specified communities, counties, and states. This assistance supports publicly owned and operated facilities, such as distribution and collection works, stormwater collection and recycled water distribution, and surface water protection and development projects. This USACE assistance is broadly labeled environmental infrastructure (EI).
EI authorities generally are referred to as either in one of two categories: Section 219 projects or EI projects and programs (individually referenced by their authorizing section). Section219 of WRDA 1992 (P.L. 102-580), as amended, includes various EI assistance authorizations for projects (e.g., municipal drinking water, stormwater control) at specific geographic locations (e.g., city, county, multiple counties). Other WRDAs and some Energy and Water Development Appropriations acts also have included EI authorities—many of these are for EI programs with broader purposes and geographic scope.
No Administration has ever requested authorization or appropriations for USACE to perform EI assistance. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) reviewed enacted legislation likely to include EI assistance authorities and identified authorized EI assistance in at least 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. CRS did not identify authorities for EI assistance in Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, Washington, and other U.S.territories.
Read on! Cutting to the chase...
Other Federal Assistance Authorities
At times, various Administrations and others have identified EI assistance as a low priority for USACE, in part because other federal and state agencies have programs for which these nonfederal water projects may be eligible. A related amendment to eliminate funding for EI assistance failed by a vote of 12-84 during Senate floor consideration of FY2017 Energy and Water Development appropriations. CRS Report RL30478, Federally Supported Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment Programs, describes other federal programs that provide assistance to similar water projects using established criteria.
Enjoy!
"Floods are acts of God but flood losses are largely acts of man." - Gilbert F. White, 1942
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