Transcript Floods and Dam Management - Budapest University of

The Army Corps of
Engineers and US Flood
Management
Betsy Albright
Fulbright Scholar
Duke University
Overview of Lecture
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History of River Regulation and Dam
Management in the United States
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Emphasis on the Army Corps of Engineers
Mississippi Floods of 1993
Hurricane Katrina
Army Corps of Engineers
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1794 Congress organized a Corps of Artillerists and
Engineers
1802 that it reestablished a separate Corps of
Engineers.
19th century Corps
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construction of coastal fortifications and mapped much of
the American West with the Corps of Topographical
Engineers (1838—1863).
also constructed lighthouses, helped develop jetties and piers
for harbors, mapped the navigation channels.
History of Army Corps of Engineers
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1824 the Supreme Court ruled in Gibbons v. Ogden
that federal authority covered interstate commerce
including riverine navigation.
Congress passed two laws that was the beginning of the
Corps' continuous involvement in civil works.
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The General Survey Act
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Roads, canals
Navigation improvement on Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
Authorized the president to have surveys made of routes for
roads and canals.
Hetch Hetchy Dam San Francisco
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Dam project for water supply for San Francisco
early 20th century
San Francisco Fire of 1906
 Dam in Yosemite National Park
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Debate between conservationists versus
preservationists
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John Muir, Sierra Club vs. Gifford Pinchot
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"The greatest good for the greatest number for the
longest time." Pinchot
Senate voted in 1913 to develop dam
Intracoastal Waterway
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Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in 1919
Intracoastal waterway
 1200 miles course humanmade canals, bays,
natural river channels, and estuaries
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http://members.aol.com/americacruising/aiww-south.html
Army Corps of Engineers
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President Franklin Roosevelt
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New Deal (1933-1938)
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favored the development of federal hydropower projects to
low-cost energy.
Three major hydroelectric power projects: Passamaquoddy
Tidal Power Project in Maine, Bonneville Dam on the
Columbia River, and Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River.
Post WWII
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Multi-purpose (flood control, hydropower, recreation)
projects proliferated
Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest
Army Corps of Engineers Today
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Beginning in the 1960s
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focused more on recreation, environmental preservation, and
water quality than on irrigation, navigation, or flood control.
Rising opposition to water projects.
Water Resources Development Act of 1986
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Emphasis on nonfederal spending and interests
Greater emphasis on environmental concerns
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/
Mississippi River Basin
Mississippi River Basin Floods
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Floods of 1849 and 1850
1850 Congress passed legislation for topographical and
hydrographical survey of Mississippi Delta in response to
disasterous flooding in the 1800s
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20 foot navigation channel in mouth of river
Report Upon The Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River
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river flow, channel cross sections, and general topographical and geological
features. developed their own formula to measure the flow of water in
rivers—however it was faulty, ignored degree of roughness of slopes of river
channels.
Developed „Levees Only” policy, affected river regulation in the US through
mid 20th century
Mississippi River Commission formed
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/brief.htm#1beg
Mississippi River Floods
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Floods of 1882, Mississippi Delta
Floods of 1912 and 1913
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1916 Flood
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Lower Mississippi Valley
First Flood Control Act Passed
Dependent on Levee control
1927 Flood
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500 people were killed, 16 million acres were flooded, and
over 500,000 people were forced from their homes
Mississippi River and Tributaries
Project
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1928 Flood Control Act This act started what now is called the
Mississippi River and Tributaries Project
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„levees for containing flood flows; floodways for the passage of excess
flows past critical reaches of the Mississippi; channel improvement and
stabilization for stabilizing the channel in order to provide an efficient
navigation alignment, increase the flood-carrying capacity of the river,
and for protection of the levees system; and tributary basin
improvements”
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/bro/misstrib.htm
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1936 Flood Control Act
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Federal Government should be involved in flood control—commenced
reservoir construction
Mississippi River Basin
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Mississippi River 6,270 km long
Land use is predominantly agriculture
Includes 32% of total US farm acreage
Major population areas along Mississippi and Missouri
Rivers
Major urban areas protected by levees and flood
impoundments
8,000 miles of levees in Upper Mississippi basin, built
by federal and local governments
27 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of
which were built in the 1930s
Below St. Louis the Mississippi is relatively freeflowing, constrained by numerous levees
Mississippi River
http://stlouis.missouri.org/images/river.html
Mississippi River
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National importance
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Transportation, environment, recreation, cultural
heritage, agriculture
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Migratory birds, fish and mussel species
In 1986, Congress designated the Upper Mississippi
River System as both a nationally significant
ecosystem and a nationally significant navigation
system.
 66% of flood plain in Upper Mississippi agriculture
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Mississippi Floods of 1993
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May through September of 1993
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota
Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois
Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missour
Rivers
 9,300 km of levees were damaged following
the 1993 flood
$15 billion damages
Flooding submerged eight million acres of farmland
75 towns totally and completely flooded
Des Moines, Iowa, located in the center of the flood region,
largest U.S. city to lose its water supply
Critical Factors Affecting Floods
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Continuous nature of the rainfall
Rain on 20 days or more in July, compared to an
average of 8-9 days with rain
Rainfalls with amounts achieving 75- to 300-year
frequencies.
Exceeding flood recurrence intervals of 100 years
Approximately 80% of the original wetlands along the
river were drained since the 1940’s
Issues with Flood Management in
Mississippi (Galloway, 1995)
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Unclear division of responsibilities in flood management Federal, state, tribe,
local governments
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Levees
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Premiums reflect flood risk
Lack of public participation
Post Flood Emergency Assistance versus Flood Insurance
Principles and Guidelines (US Water Resources Council)
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Locally constructed levees weaker than federal, little oversight of levee
construction
National Flood Insurance Program
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No unified program of floodplain management
Development in the floodplain
Water resources planning document
Structural versus non-structural approaches
U.S. Soil Conservation Service spent $25 million to buy flood-prone
farmlands for conversion to natural conditions (e.g. wetlands)
Post Mississippi River Floods
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Review of U.S. flood-control policy, both before and
after the 1993 flood
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limit or reduce infrastructure on floodplains
New emphases on flood-damage prevention (FEMA)
buyouts of floodplain properties.
Around St. Louis new development on flood plain
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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$197 million on nine local levees in its St. Louis District since
1993
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5719/207
Hurricane Katrina
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/hqhome/
New Orleans Flood of 2005
http://www.kathryncramer.com/photos/new_orleans_flooding/38640798_e084f7a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pontchartrain
New Orleans and SE Louisiana
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City lies below sea level
Surrounded by water
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Mississippi Delta wetlands disappearing
Hurricane 1947
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Lake Pontchartrain (North)
Mississippi River (South and West)
Levees built along Lake Pontchartrain
Hurricane Betsy 1965
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Levees raised to protect for a Category 3 hurricane
New Orleans and SE Louisiana
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Army Corps of Engineers requested funds from
Congress to upgrade levees in 1990s
Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control
Project
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Funding cut 80%
FEMA study in 2001 suggested hurricane in
New Orleans one of top three likely disasters in
US
Hurricane Katrina
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Hurrican Katrina hit as a Category 4
Levee Breaches in New Orleans
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17th Street Canal Breach, London Street, Industrial Canal
80% of city covered by flood water
Army Corps of Engineers began pumping water back into lake
on September 6th
September 24th breaches reoccured due to Hurricane Rita
Estimated that 2% of volume of lake pumped back into lake
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Heavy metals, petrochemicals, sewage, corpses
Hurricane Katrina
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Approximately 1,000 deaths
Damages in the billions
Homeless 100,000
Environmental Impacts
http://www.kathryncramer.com/photos/new_orleans_flooding/319526.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17020
Coastal Wetlands SE Louisiana
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The coastal wetlands of Louisiana (approximately 3 million acres) encompass
approximately 40 % of the coastal wetlands of the United States,
It has been estimated that the state of Lousiana is losing 75 square kilometers
annually (http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/LAwetlands/lawetlands.html).
This loss of wetlands represents approximately 80% of the total loss of
wetlands across the United States.
Dredging wetlands for canals or draining and filling for agriculture, grazing,
or development.
The Mississippi Delta (300 km wide) formed from sediment deposits of
Mississippi River over past 7,000 years.
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Levees and natural processes have changed sediment deposit patterns
Salt water intursion from Gulf of Mexico to freshwater wetlands
Energy exploration
SE Louisiana Wetlands
SE Louisiana Wetlands
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/la-wetlands/figures/fig3.html
Post Katrina Analysis
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White House and Congress plan to review
response to Hurricane Katrina
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Will review include factors associated with increased
flood risk?
What will happen to New Orleans?