The chair of Louisiana's coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Thursday that the Army Corps of Engineers, aside for its post-Katrina hurricane protection upgrades, is a "complete disaster."
WASHINGTON - The chair of Louisiana's coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Thursday that the Army Corps of Engineers, aside for its post-Katrina hurricane protection upgrades, is a "complete disaster."
Garret Graves, chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority for the State of Louisiana, calls the Army Corps of Engineers a disaster.
"An outdated and inefficient project process, budget cuts, lack of accountability, rogue attorneys, and the rise of the bureaucratic morass has related the once-exemplary corps to an entity incapable of progress," said Garret Graves in testimony prepared for Thursday's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.
Graves, who also serves as coastal advisor to Gov. Bobby Jindal, said that the Corps is requiring each step in the process toward construction to be "completed numerous times," causing not only delays but causing "out of control" increases in project costs.
He cites two recent examples.
Graves said that the Corps spent $72 million studying the Morganza to the Gulf Hurricane Protection Project, and during the delay, the cost of the project ballooned from $886 million to $12 billion.
"In the second example, the Corps spent an estimated $100 million studying wetlands restoration associated with the Louisiana coastal Area program and had not constructed a single restoration project authorized by congress," Graves said. "Our state has lost an estimated 1,900 square miles of coastal wetlands -- largely as a result of Corps actions -- and the Corps is doing nothing to stop the loss or restore the wetlands."
Graves exempted from his criticism the Corps' hurricane protection work following Hurricane Katrina.
"While important milestones were missed, the job is far from over, and we are not in agreement in all the Corps decisions, the relative progress in restoring protection to this region has been impressive," Graves said.
In her testimony, Jo Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, defended the Corps.
"The Corps is using a risk informed process to both confirm and adjust the application of post-Katrina standards to other projects," said Darcy, the top civilian leader of the Corps. "This results in a more appropriate and cost-efficient design approach. We have also developed specific guidance on a single national elevation datum to ensure consistent communication of design heights, on site specific sea level rise to ensure regional adaptation of climate change, and on wall and levee design to ensure consistent design and construction based on local conditions."
At the beginning of the Senate hearing, Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the panel's top Republican, said they are working together to develop a new resources bill that would include significant reforms for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Asked by Vitter why the Corps hasn't recommended any specific coastal restoration projects for construction, Darcy said President Barack Obama had requested funding in his two most recent budget submissions but that Congress didn't approve the request.
Vitter said the Corps has both the authority and funding to move forward with specific project recommendations but chose not to do so.