Staff Attorney Clara Goodwin authored this post.
In our work, we often find ourselves opposing actions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”), which is part of the Department of Defense and is charged with managing the nation’s water resources. Across greater Houston, the Corps is overseeing the latest expansion of the Houston Ship Channel, known as Project 11; the Ike Dike; and projects affecting development over important ecosystems within our Five Critical Wetland areas. We frequently raise concerns that the Corps is:
- not adequately centering the priorities of communities most impacted by a particular project,
- not adequately protecting imperiled ecosystems, and
- focusing on the value of protecting private and corporate property interests to the exclusion of benefits to ecosystems or communities.
Last month, the Corps published a new final rule updating the framework it uses to evaluate potential water resources investments for the first time since 1983. This update was mandated by Congress through the Water Resources Development Acts of 2007 and 2020. It includes two major changes that address some of the concerns we have had with the Corps’ approach to large water infrastructure projects in our watershed. The first change is to require a more comprehensive cost-benefit analysis that includes the consideration of environmental and social impacts as well as economic impacts. The second change is the inclusion of far more community input and Tribal input during the planning process for new projects.
Bayou City Waterkeeper, with 10 partners signing on, submitted largely supportive public comments on this rule when it was proposed earlier last year. We primarily focused on specific aspects of the rule that could be strengthened to better protect ecosystems and floodplains and prioritize environmental justice. This included recommendations for:
- proactive outreach and the consideration of input from impacted communities at specific stages of the planning process,
- stronger guidelines on how to include social and environmental values in the cost-benefit analysis, and
- the prioritization of nature-based and nonstructural solutions in plan selection.
Overall, the Corps responded to our comments with minor clarifying edits and the promise to review and update existing guidance as needed. However—in a win for Environmental Justice—the Corps did strengthen its cost-benefit analysis by adding a requirement to explain any assumptions made in evaluating monetized and non-monetized costs and benefits during plan selection. The final rule now requires the Corps to fully consider all social, environmental, and economic benefits and costs of each element of a proposed investment.
This rule represents significant progress. As it is implemented, the rule will enable far more input on Corps projects from impacted communities and Tribal Nations and require a far greater degree of consideration for environmental and social harms as well as for nature-based solutions. We will continue to monitor and act on opportunities to allow our more specific recommendations to influence future Army Corps Guidance documents to support the implementation of this rule. As a new administration began this week, we expect attacks on a wide range of environmental progress made over the last four years. The overwhelmingly supportive public comments, such as ours, will help strengthen this rule in the face of future challenges or attempts to reduce its impact.
Bayou City Waterkeeper is a Houston-based organization leading the fight to protect our region’s waters. Leveraging community power, education, protections provided by the Clean Water Act, and increased federal support for water infrastructure funding that disadvantaged communities, we work to transform our community and waterways.