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Even where levees are thought to be sound, communities are finding it difficult and expensive to get them certified to meet tough new federal flood insurance standards.
Relatively few engineering firms have both the expertise and the professional liability coverage to declare that a levee can hold back a 100-year flood, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency now requires.
Complicating matters further, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces new restrictions on when it can help.
The 23 miles of levee along the Arkansas River protecting the city of Van Buren and Crawford County, Ark., from flooding are a case in point. These fortifications are “provisionally accredited” for now but still must be certified within a year.
Although the Corps had certified the levees in the past for the local agencies that maintain them, Army officials recently told local leaders they’re no longer allowed to do such work. They cite a recent change in federal law that prohibits government agencies from taking on projects that can be done by a private firm.
“The Corps has been monitoring and inspecting these levees since they went up during World War II. But now they say they can’t help us,” Crawford County Judge John Hall said.
“There’s no indication that there’s much anything wrong with the levees, they’ve been maintained. But we’ve got until next April to get all this inspection and engineering work done or else we’ve got a whole bunch of our community in the flood plain, especially our industrial park with 5,000 jobs and millions of dollars invested in it. And right now, we don’t even know what the work’s going to cost,” Hall added.
Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., who represents Crawford County, complained to colleagues that FEMA had told local officials that one of their options was to work with the Corps to have the levees certified. “Even if they ultimately get Corps help, they’re not going to be able to meet the deadline set by FEMA,” Boozman said.
Steven Stockton, the Corps deputy director of civil works, told a congressional hearing on the national flood plain remapping effort earlier this year that his agency’s hands are tied.
“The Corps does not have authority to certify levees for non-federal projects that are not within a Corps program or part of an ongoing Corps study or project,” Stockton said.
Even when the Corps is allowed to assist, there’s no money left in its budget for the work, which means communities must cover what can be a substantial cost on their own.
