The following resources are available to assist members in improving federal water projects that put people in harm’s way and other federal policies actually incentivize residential and industrial development in risky areas along our coasts and in our floodplains.
Overview of the Corps
- An in-depth resource explaining the corps’ civil works and regulatory programs, permitting authority, relationship with Congress, and tips on how to influence the corps’ process each step of the way. Download the full 200 page report here, or click to download individual chapters below.
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 – Inside The Corps: The Corps’ History and Structure
- Chapter 2 – The Civil Works Program: Project Planning and Construction
- Chapter 3 – The Regulatory Program: Clean Water Act Section 404 Permits
- Chapter 4 – The Corps and Congress: Project Politics and Funding
- Chapter 5 – The Players: Agencies, States, and Stakeholders
- Chapter 6 – The Corps and the Law
- Chapter 7- The Media: Strategies to Spread the Word
A 1-page basic overview of the Corps, politics, projects and the growing demand for modernization and restoration. Download the report.
Templates to come! Check back soon!
Impacts of Climate Change
Concerns with traditional structural approaches continue to mount as we see increasing changes in climate and water cycles. The nation is facing increased storms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels along our coasts and estuaries resulting from global climate change. In order to confront climate change, the Corps must take into account the latest science in project planning, and design its projects in a way that protects the natural systems that help mitigate the adverse impacts to people, property and wildlife.
On July 1, 2009, the Corps of Engineers issued a guidance “for incorporating the direct and indirect physical effects of projected future sea-level change in managing, planning, engineering, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining USACE projects and systems of projects.” The guidance expired July 1, 2011. Review it here.
- Ecosystem Restoration and Global Climate Change: The Role of Wetlands in Combating Global Warming, by Sarah E. Haas & April H. Gromnicki, National Audubon Society, October 2007
- Increasing Vulnerability to Hurricanes: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, National Wildlife Federation, (August 2008) calls for a comprehensive prioritization system for Corps projects.
- Corps Global Warming Amendment Narrowly Defeated in 2007 Water Resources Development Act Senate Debate