The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) delivered to Congress its Fiscal Year 2022 Work Plan for the Army Civil Works program, which includes several dams.
On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law 117-103, of which Division D is the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022 (Act). Of the $8.3 billion provided for the Army Civil Works program, about $7.9 billion is appropriated in five accounts: Investigations, Construction, Operation and Maintenance, Mississippi River and Tributaries, and the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
The Act allocates about $6.8 billion of the total for these five accounts to specific programs, projects and activities (PPA). The USACE is responsible for allocating the remainder in these accounts, about $1.1 billion, to specific PPA. The allocation of these additional funds is presented in the Work Plan.
The Army Civil Works program funds the planning, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of water resources projects, with a focus on the highest performing work within the three main Civil Works mission areas: commercial navigation, flood and storm damage reduction, and aquatic ecosystem restoration. It also funds programs that contribute to protection of the nation’s waters and wetlands; the generation of low-cost renewable hydropower; the restoration of certain sites contaminated as a result of the nation’s early atomic weapons development program; and emergency preparedness and training to respond to natural disasters.
The additional funding not allocated by the Joint Explanatory Statement to specified PPAs in the five appropriations is subdivided into numerous categories and subcategories within these areas: commercial navigation $593 million, flood risk management $98 million, other authorized project purposes $99 million and FUSRAP $300 million.
Ongoing work eligible for consideration for the additional funding generally includes PPA that can attain a significant milestone, complete a discrete element of work, or produce significant outputs in FY2022.
With the total funding for this fiscal year, the Work Plan funds to completion 18 feasibility studies, 14 projects in the preconstruction engineering and design phase, and seven construction projects or elements of projects. The dam projects included in these categories are:
- Studies funded for completion: IL River 519 Fox River Dams Restoration, IL
- Preconstruction engineering and design funded for completion: Brandon Road Lock and Dam, Aquatic Nuisance Control Species Barrier, IL (Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study)
- Construction projects funded for completion: Pipestem Lake, ND (Dam Safety)
The Act also provided funding for a limited number of new studies and new projects, including those proposed in the budget. The work plan includes 21 previously unfunded projects within the investigations account and five within the construction account, but none of these are related to dams.
