WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation’s water-related infrastructure — dams, levees, inland waterways and harbors — are threatened from decades of underfunding and have jeopardized the ability of the infrastructure to support the nation’s economy and way of life, the president of the nation’s largest civil engineering society told a Senate committee. Speaking before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Andrew W. Herrmann, P.E., president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), urged the committee to pass a new Water Resources Development Act that would create a new National Levee Safety Program, reauthorize the National Dam Safety Program, restore trust to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and fix the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.
“Aging infrastructure for marine ports and inland waterways threatens more than 1 million jobs,” said Herrmann, citing a new ASCE Failure to Act economic study. “Between now and 2020, investment needs in the nation’s marine ports and inland waterways sector total $30 billion, while planned expenditures are about $14 billion, leaving an investment gap of nearly $16 billion.”
Herrmann stressed the need for Congress to create a National Levee Safety Program, modeled on the National Dam Safety Program. The program would require the federal and state governments to conduct mandatory safety inspections for all levees and compile a national inventory of levees. He pointed out that the reliability of the nation’s 100,000 miles of levees is unknown, that many are more than 50 years old, and the increase in development behind these levees poses a risk to the public health and safety from a failure.