Environmental "Review" Swept Aside for 118 Water Projects Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Washington Post - May 18, 2002 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35403-2002May17.html Corps Speedily Clears Way for 118 Projects Review, Announced 3 Weeks Ago in Response to Critics, Called Window-Dressing By Michael Grunwald Less than three weeks after the Army Corps of Engineers vowed to suspend about 150 of its congressionally approved water projects in response to criticism of the agency's economic analyses, the Corps has already cleared most of them to proceed. The Corps announced yesterday that it actually reviewed 172 projects after April 30, when Maj. Gen. Robert H. Griffin, its civil works director, ordered an unprecedented agency-wide "pause" in levee-building, port-dredging and beach restoration projects justified by outdated or questionable analyses. Griffin said 54 of those projects were still being re-evaluated, but only eight "as a result of this exercise." The other 118 have been approved to continue. Corps critics on Capitol Hill, as well as environmentalists and taxpayer advocates, immediately denounced the agency's well-publicized self-examination as a farce. The same Corps officials who oversaw the original analyses were responsible for the reviews, and several Bush administration officials with Corps responsibilities said they were never consulted. None of the Corps projects that have been singled out for criticism by the Office of Management and Budget, the General Accounting Office or the National Academy of Sciences were among the eight marked for further review as a result of Griffin's order. "What was promised to be a comprehensive review appears only to be cheap window dressing," said Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), who has introduced legislation to overhaul the Corps but hailed the April 30 order as a "long overdue" step in the right direction. "It is more clear than ever that it is going to take congressional action to fix the problems at the Corps." In a memo accompanying his order on April 30, Griffin said it was prompted by "serious questions in regard to the accuracy and currency . . . and the rigor of the review process for some of the projects." But in a news conference the next day, Griffin said he was unaware of any specific problems with Corps analyses; he just wanted to make sure projects had updated studies before construction began. Yesterday he emphasized in a news release that the Corps still plans rigorous reviews of 54 projects. "We learned after calling for the pause that many of the projects were already under review," Griffin said in the statement. "We must be careful to ensure that all our projects constitute a sound investment for our nation and are environmentally sustainable." Seven of the projects held up by the review -- beach projects in New Jersey and Delaware, four river projects in California, and a river project in Texas -- were held up because their last economic studies were conducted before 1999. Another project, on the Tule River in California, was held up to evaluate whether a recent design change would increase its cost. Many of the most controversial Corps projects -- including a $165 million flood control pump in the Mississippi Delta, a $690 million canal deepening in New Orleans, a $100 million lake outlet in North Dakota and a $65 million flood control project in Missouri -- were listed as "Review Complete." Several others, including a $230 million deepening of Savannah (Ga.) Harbor and a $108 million jetty project in North Carolina, were listed as "undergoing review." "They were already in the hopper for similar reasons," Corps spokeswoman Becky Dobyns said. In December 2000, an internal Pentagon investigation conducted after a Washington Post series on the Corps concluded that the agency has a "systemic bias" in favor of large-scale construction projects. The General Accounting Office recently notified the Corps that its $311 million plan to deepen the Delaware River was deeply flawed. And several projects -- including the North Carolina jetties, the Missouri flood control project and the Mississippi pump -- may be referred to the White House Council on Environmental Quality this year because of opposition from federal environmental agencies. Corps critics said yesterday that the agency could not be trusted to review its own work without input from the public or independent agencies. The two postponed beach projects, they noted, were already being delayed for reasons unrelated to economics. "The Corps has less credibility than a French figure-skating judge," said Steve Ellis, director of water resources for the group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "We'd have more confidence in this audit if Arthur Andersen conducted it," American Rivers President Rebecca Wodder said. The Corps has always been popular with members of Congress, who love to steer water projects to their districts. When Michael Parker, the civilian chief of the Corps, was ousted in March for complaining about the Bush administration's efforts to slash the Corps budget, members of Congress leapt to Parker's defense. There was quieter rumbling last month after the Corps proposed the review. The list the Corps released yesterday did not include any costs or descriptions of the projects, but did note each project's congressional district. Howard Marlowe, a lobbyist for communities with Corps beach restoration projects, said his clients were not at all worried that their projects would be canceled because of the Corps review. Still, he suggested that the political climate may be changing a bit. "I think the Corps has gotten the message that it's got to get its figures right," Marlowe said. "They don't want to get caught making mistakes." ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-05.19.02-05:04:39-27134