To date, there is no single federal agency responsible for levee oversight nationwide. In 2006, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) created its Levee Safety Program with the mission to assess the integrity and viability of levees and recommend courses of action to ensure that levee systems do not present unacceptable risks to the public, property, and environment.
Levee safety and effectively communicating risk is a shared responsibility among federal, state and private partners and provides the opportunity for individuals to make well informed public safety decisions for themselves and take appropriate action. The USACE Levee Safety Program leverages changes to the engineering profession and latest technology to provide continuous feedback about levee systems and their reliability through consistent and comprehensive inspections and assessments.
The approximate 2,000 levee systems, comprising roughly 14,000 miles of levees currently in the USACE Levee Safety Program may only represent a small fraction of the estimated 100,000 miles of the nation’s levees. The USACE Levee Safety Program includes levee systems operated and maintained by USACE; levee systems typically constructed by USACE but operated and maintained by a local sponsor; and levee systems constructed, operated and maintained by non-federal agencies and accepted into the USACE Rehabilitation and Inspection Program (RIP). As of March 2010, there are 14,436.38 total miles of levee systems in USACE programs.
USACE roles and responsibilities with levee systems vary depending on the particular congressional authority assigned to it (e.g., Flood Control and Coastal Emergency Act (PL 84-99). Following are some of the primary roles:
- Inspect and assess the reliability of the levees and floodwalls in the USACE portfolio. Information obtained from inspections of levees will be integrated into the USACE National Levee Database (NLD) ;
- Communicate risks to life, property and the environment to local communities (usually through non-federal sponsors) including assessment of the level and nature of the risk;
- Where significant risk to human life exists, assist communities in understanding their options for Interim Risk Reduction Measures (IRRM) to immediately lower risk of loss of life to people while a permanent solution can be found and implemented;
- Assist local communities in flood fighting, both by providing information and direct assistance;
- Develop and share state of the art approaches, tools and standards related to levee safety as a means to raise understanding of risks posed by levees as well as methods and tools to assess, communicate and address those risks.
Principles
Public safety is the primary focus of the Levee Safety Program. The Levee Safety Program is an integral component of a broad, national flood risk management effort that employs a system-wide approach to flood risk management and embraces shared responsibility. In order for the Levee Safety Program to be effective, USACE implements inspections of its levees on a continuous and periodic basis using state of the art technology and consistent risk methodologies. All Levee Safety Program activities will be communicated accurately and timely to drive action.