BATON ROUGE -- In a report released today, a national panel is calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restructure its project selection and decision-making procedures.
The National Academy of Public Administration, or NAPA, was commissioned by Congress to conduct a thorough eight-month study of the Corps with emphasis on how the Corps prioritizes projects for construction. The panel, led by LSU Chancellor and Academy Fellow Sean O’Keefe, released its findings today. The report is available at www.napawash.org.
"The current process does not serve the nation as well as it can," said O’Keefe. "It does not give enough attention to system performance and weighing risks if systems fail."
The current policies employed by the Corps rely on a priority system that weighs the relative economic value of a project against its actual cost. In order for a project to be launched, its "benefit-cost" ratio has to reach a certain level. The panel suggests that this narrow focus to the process is inadequate and must be broadened to incorporate public safety, environmental consequences and other factors in addition to economic value.
"Human safety should be one of the most important factors in the prioritization process," O’Keefe said. "Economic benefit alone doesn’t capture the value of projects for which the Corps of Engineers is responsible. The Katrina and Rita experiences are painful reminders that when systems fail, the consequences are much more than dollars and cents."
O’Keefe and the panel also call for the use of dedicated budget and planning procedures. The outcome should be to finance projects recognized as national priorities, such as the rebuilding of the New Orleans levee systems, to be undertaken without the danger of losing financial support before completion.
"The Corps also needs to evaluate the potential impacts that projects may have on the surrounding environments," said Chuck Wilson, LSU vice provost, executive director of the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and an advisor to the Academy panel. "A particularly apt example of how the Corps’ lack of environmental planning can have a negative impact is the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet canal in New Orleans, which was perceived as a great idea on paper and was done for the right economic reasons at the time, but it eventually resulted in saltwater intrusion that damaged the adjacent wetlands."
"Here in Louisiana, we appreciate how water resource planning requires national priorities by Congress in public work projects that will protect critical coastal infrastructure, sustain our natural resources and stimulate economic development," said Robert Twilley, technical advisor to the panel and Associate Vice Chancellor of the LSU Coastal Systems and Society Initiative. "This Academy report defines how comprehensive system analysis together with appropriate investments is required to implement policies and priorities within the Corps of Engineers to effectively manage our future water resources capacity."
The Academy panel urges immediate steps, but the Corps cannot transform itself unaided. Congress must change laws, the Corps and other water resources agencies must change their planning and budget guidelines and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget must change how it reviews the Corps budget. It won’t be an overnight process, but the panel urges immediate steps to begin this transition.
"It will take time for these fundamental changes to make the nation safer and more resilient," O’Keefe said. "But, the time to start is now. The next storm will not wait for government to get ready."
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