By Sam Riley Medlock
On Jan. 15, the National Committee on Levee Safety (NCLS) released its report calling for a national levee safety program in response to the levee failures experienced during the devastating 2005 hurricane season, and last year’s Midwest floods.
The committee drafted the report, which includes recommendations to Congress for legislation, national engineering standards, and alignment of federal programs from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others.
The report has been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review before going to Congress.
The report shows that we are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history -- a burgeoning growth of risk to people and infrastructure as a result of more than 100 years of inattention to levee infrastructure, combined with a particularly vulnerable economy and social fabric.
The long history of levees in the U.S. provides lessons from both successes and failures. The nation’s relative complacency during numerous natural events that wreaked economic catastrophes in recent decades was shattered in 2005 in New Orleans. The catastrophic loss of life associated with Hurricane Katrina refocused the nation and became the catalyst for the 2007 Levee Safety Act calling for recommendations for a national levee safety program.
“The committee performed four-and-a-half man-years of work in three-and-a-half months, evaluating a wide range of technical, policy, and regulatory strategies, with a public safety ethic guiding all decisions,” said Steve Stockton, NCLS chairman. “We view the report as the beginning, not the final work, in a national dialogue leading to action among a broad range of stakeholders on our shared responsibilities in levee safety and flood risk management. As a group, we cannot over-emphasize the urgency of these recommendations.”
Congress directed the formation of the NCLS, which worked from October to January to draft a set of recommendations and a strategic implementation plan for the creation of a national levee safety program. The committee is a diverse group of professionals from federal, state, local/regional governments, and the private sector that has worked diligently to represent the nation’s interests in levee safety.
The current levee safety reality for the U.S. is stark -- a huge lack of knowledge regarding the location, performance, and condition of levees, and a lack of oversight, technical standards, and effective communication of risks.
A look to the future offers two distinct possibilities -- one where we continue the status quo and await the certainty of more catastrophes, or one where we take reasonable actions and investments in a national levee safety program that would turn the tide on risk growth. In its report, the NCLS strongly recommends the latter.
The committee’s recommendations are prefaced by recognition of a need for a broader national flood risk management approach, the benefits of integrating national dam safety and levee safety programs, and for leveraging levee safety as a critical first step in a national infrastructure investment.
The specific recommendations for a national levee safety program embrace three main concepts:
- The need for leadership via a National Levee Safety Commission that provides for state delegated programs, national technical standards, risk communication, and coordinating environmental and safety concerns;
- Building strong levee safety programs in and within all states that in turn provide oversight, regulation, and critical levee safety processes;
- A foundation of well-aligned federal agency programs and processes.
The committee’s recommendations as a package will result in a meaningful, comprehensive levee safety program, placing levees in their appropriate place in an overall flood risk management context.
For more information, and to download the draft report, please visit the committee’s Web site at http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/ncls/.
(Sam Riley Medlock is a member of the National Committee on Levee Safety.)