Key Army Corps of Engineers projects such as Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection would be expedited under a rare, bipartisan Senate vote Wednesday. The chamber approved a water resources bill, 83-14. The measure "is one of the single most significant pieces of legislation for Louisiana that we'll vote on this year," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the bill's sponsors. "We have the...
Key Army Corps of Engineers projects such as Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection would be expedited under a rare, bipartisan Senate vote Wednesday. The chamber approved a water resources bill, 83-14.The measure "is one of the single most significant pieces of legislation for Louisiana that we'll vote on this year," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the bill's sponsors. "We have the opportunity to reform the Corps of Engineers, streamline flood protection projects, finally get Morganza moving and improve our waterways and infrastructure all in one bill. This is a huge benefit to our state."
House members are working on their own water resources bill. Among the key provisions in the Senate bill:
-- It authorizes more money from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, financed by shipping companies, to dredge waterways, including the Mississippi River and Calcasieu River ports.
-- It lets states borrow from the federal government to cover required matching local costs for corps projects. Vitter said this should insure that projects ready to move forward aren't delayed when local governments can't come up with the required matching share, which is often 35 percent.
One of the initiatives Vitter hopes will move forward, if the water resources bill becomes law, is the long-delayed Morganza-to-the-Gulf project, now estimated to cost more than $10 billion in the latest report by the Corps of Engineers. It is a series of levees, locks and other systems through Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes to protect about 200,000 people against storm surges such as those caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Landrieu said there are challenges ahead.
"While this bill makes important, commonsense reforms that will help keep our rivers dredged, ports maintained and build the critical flood control infrastructure we need to stay safe during storms, it will take serious funding to make these projects in Southeast Louisiana a reality," Landrieu said. "I hope the same spirit of bipartisanship that helped pass today's bill continues through the appropriations process to take these projects from the drawing board to construction site. I applaud Sens. Vitter and Boxer for their leadership on this vital water infrastructure bill, and I hope the House will take this bill up quickly."
Despite the huge margin by which the bill passed the Senate on Wednesday, the measure wasn't without controversy. Environmental groups, backed by the Obama administration, objected to the streamlining provisions for environmental reviews.
The bill's managers, Vitter and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California, agreed to some last-minute changes, including a provision that says federal agencies may move back deadlines set in the bill based on new information.
"The public needs and expects an effective chance to review major federal projects that will affect their communities and the environment, like the massive water projects authorized by this bill," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The original version of this bill significantly undermined the ability to conduct those reviews. Thanks to efforts by key senators, the final bill restored some protections, but this bill still needlessly limits public review in ways that will harm the environment, and it should not become law in its current form."
Environmentalists often mentioned the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, which contributed substantially to flooding after Hurricane Katrina, as an example of the kind of corps project that must be averted in the future. One way to do that, they said, is the kind of independent review that would be limited, at least temporally, by the new water resources bill.
Boxer, who has long championed strong environmental protection laws, defended the bill she helped negotiate with Vitter. She said it maintained all the current environmental regulations required by federal law for corps projects, but simply incorporated some provisions designed to prevent needless delays that stalled needed projects.
Boxer is chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. Vitter is the panel's top Republican.
On Tuesday, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., blocked a vote on an amendment by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., that would have delayed for five years federal flood insurance program changes that are likely to raise premiums -- in some cases substantially -- for policyholders. Landrieu said the increases will price some people out of the flood insurance program. Toomey said it's no longer reasonable for some ratepayers and taxpayers to subsidize lower premiums for policy holders who are at high risk of flooding.
Landrieu said she'll offer a stand-alone provision to delay the new flood insurance rules. Still, she joined 82 other senators in voting for the main water resources bill, citing its authorization of important flood control and navigational work in Louisiana.
Boxer has battled Vitter over environmental issues, most recently the Louisiana senator's efforts to delay a vote on President Barack Obama's nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency. But on the water resources bill, she said it was a "pleasure" to work with him, though she conceded they had their "moments."
"We focus on flood control. We focus on ports and environmental restoration projects where the corps has completed a comprehensive study," Boxer said. She said it took a while to reach consensus on the bill because "we had to deal with changing the culture of the Senate away from earmarks."