Randy Weber: “My amendment deals with flood control levees and the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assessing and rating these…”

“My amendment deals with flood control levees and the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assessing and rating these vital community-based, flood-defense systems. The Corps has been developing levee risk ratings around the United States without the close involvement of local project sponsors, and this is unacceptable. What is more, the agency is trying to characterize ``flood risk to our communities'' without routinely offering viable solution alternatives or well-informed site-specific cost estimates for these solutions. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Levee Portfolio Report from March of this year, the agency indicates the following on page 28: `` . . . there may be reluctance to share risk information with the public when an immediate and viable risk management solution has not been identified.'' Reluctance? Reluctance indeed. The Corps has been developing a risk-rating tool called the Levee Safety Action Classification, or L-SAC. Local levee systems and affected communities are labeled as either very high risk, high risk, moderate risk, low risk, or very low risk for flood inundation. Thus far, 13 percent of the Corps' program levees are in the very high, the high, or the moderate risk categories. Notably, these systems are estimated to have 8 million people that live or work behind them. My own district includes such an area near Freeport, Texas, where nationally-significant manufacturing and R&D operations have occurred since 1940.…”