What is Morganza to the Gulf, anyway?
April 10, 2013
Storm system draws cheers and a few jeers near coast
April 10, 2013
Congress has twice given the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permission to proceed with Morganza to the Gulf, and twice that consent has been revoked.
Tempered optimism that 2013 will be the year for a third and perpetual authorization has followed a Senate committee’s unanimous bi-partisan approval last month of legislation that could become the first Water Resources Development Act in six years.
“It’s always a long road from here to the White House signature,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Ca., chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “I do believe we have some wind at our back because we have such a broad coalition of people behind us on this,” such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Federal authorization of Morganza to the Gulf would not deliver the $13 billion the project is estimated to cost, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft report, but it would make the mammoth storm-protection system eligible for federal funds and ease the permitting process for the segments of the Morganza footprint funded with state monies and local tax dollars.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the ranking Republican on EPW, is credited alongside Boxer with setting the framework of the Senate bill in aspiration of Morganza authorization. Both senators are seeking flood-protection infrastructure in their home states.
The Senate EPW bill could go before the full Senate this month, and the House of Representatives is expected to investigate its own version over the summer. If the bills pass each chamber, a conference committee of senators and house representatives would work to resolve inconsistencies between the bills.
“The biggest thing to point to is it got through unanimously at committee,” Vitter spokesman Luke Bolar said. “It should have the support to get through the Senate fairly smoothly.”
The protection system, under study for 20 years at an estimated cost of $72 million, first received congressional authorization 13 years ago, but it was contingent on the corps filing a feasibility report by Dec. 31, 2000. The corps filed its report more than a year after the deadline, so despite a favorable judgment Morganza lost authorization.
Seven years later, it was reauthorized. Weeks after the second authorization, the new, post-Katrina federal standards were enacted and the project’s cost skyrocketed, so the responsibility returned to the corps to complete a Post-Authorization Change report, a draft of which was just released in January.
The last WRDA bill was in 2007, and Congress had to override President George W. Bush’s veto to pass it.
Not one federal dollar has been allocated toward constructing the system, now proposed at 98 miles of levee ranging from 15 to 26 feet, 31 floodgates and a lock on the Houma Navigational Canal.
Still a long way from authorization
Not everyone shares the senators’ optimism.
Reggie Dupre, executive director of the Terrebonne Parish Levee and Conservation District, said the House’s political climate and vast turnover since the last WRDA in 2007 has him doubting the likelihood a bilateral agreement will be brokered.
“Generally speaking, Morganza to the Gulf is the biggest civil-works project in the United States,” Dupre said. “Some people consider an authorization an earmark.”
The House bill would originate from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, on which Louisiana does not have a representative since former Rep. Jeff Landry’s ouster. Last month, however, committee chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., met with local Morganza lobbyists and Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican who represents portions of Terrebonne and Lafourche including the Morganza alignment.
“The fact that (Scalise) brought down the chairman of the committee says a lot for what he’d like to accomplish this year,” said Lori LeBlanc, managing director of the Morganza Action Coalition. LeBlanc, who was among several local lobbyists in Washington D.C. last month touting the project’s benefits and need for authorization, said she’s optimistic the House will take up WRDA. “It’s definitely on their radar.”
She echoed concerns that the high rate of turnover in the House since 2007 may impact lawmakers’ understanding of the authorization process and its importance to infrastructure development.
“We have to find a way to proceed around this earmark ban without further jeopardizing federal deficits, but we have to build infrastructure in this country,” LeBlanc said.
Supporters are also cautiously waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to score the proposed bill. The CBO will determine the bill’s impact on future federal expenses, not solely the level of appropriations explicitly included in the EPW bill, according to a Congressional Research Service report. This could bloat the projected costs and draw ire in the spending-conscious House.
Should congress pass a WRDA bill that includes Morganza, the project’s authorization remains contingent on corps reports, mandates Vitter said he’s pressuring agency commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick to meet.
Bostick said during a February hearing that the final post-authorization change report (stemming from the post-Katrina standards in 2007) and a chief’s report on Morganza would be submitted to Congress in July. Both reports are necessary to maintain any congressional authorization.
“Senator Vitter continues to push on the Corps to accelerate completion of the Morganza Chief’s Report and will seek contingent authorization if it appears that the Corps will miss their yet-again promised deadlines,” Vitter spokesman Luke Bolar wrote in a memo to media.
What authorization would mean
Although the green light would make Morganza eligible for federal appropriations, receiving federal funds is far from a guarantee. In 2011, the Congressional Research Service published a report that said more than 1,000 authorized studies and construction projects were in an appropriations backlog exceeding $60 billion.
The bill passed through EPW contained language that would de-authorize projects that have languished since at least the 1996 WRDA by instilling retroactive timelines for spending money on the approved projects.
Primarily, authorization would indicate the corps believes the project is feasible and that congress concurs, major victories for the status of a project in which federal development has been dormant.
And as the state anticipates a windfall from increased Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act-related oil-and-gas royalties in 2017, having a cleared project to spend it on would eliminate any lingering doubts as to whether the money would be credited.
State and local dollars have funded $226 million in Morganza-related projects, with a potential $100 million bond issue stemming from the half-cent sales tax approved in December anticipated to supplement it. The state/local share over the course of the project will approach $4.5 billion, according to corps estimates.
Even without federal funding, the go-ahead would have significant short-term benefits. Local tax dollars have been dedicated to building a toned-down version, shorter levees in the footprint of the proposed federal project. Each segment that local and state monies fund must be permitted through the corps.
As part of this process, the sponsoring agencies must demonstrate each segment has independent utility, which Dupre said every reach provides. The requirement causes delays in proceeding, which would be eliminated if Congress authorizes the corps’ Environmental Impact Statement on the project.
“Having a record of decision on the environmental side means that we have a lot less hurdles to go through to get these environmental permits for sections of levees,” Dupre said.
Proposed regulatory changes
In the same vein as the de-authorizations, the EPW bill proposes policy changes to the way corps projects are managed.
“The corps’ process is too cumbersome in general, it takes too long,” Vitter said during the committee hearing. “We improved that in many ways.”
Monetary penalties would be inflicted on the corps for missing deadlines, with the fine money being diverted toward the project in question so as to not penalize infrastructure progress.
Other policy changes in the EPW version include prioritizing projects in areas prone to storm damage, allowing federal government loans for projects in areas where local money can be fronted and expand cost-share crediting opportunities for nonfederal partners while also giving them more of a management role in corps projects.
Regarding the backlog, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., called on her colleagues to double the Corps of Engineers’ budget to ensure that water infrastructure projects declared fit for federal action can be implemented.
“The current Corps budget of $1.7 billion could easily be spent in Louisiana alone, and is not nearly enough to address the national need,” Landrieu said in a statement. “We can either make smart investments in our water infrastructure at the front end, or continue to spend billions of dollars on recovery after a disaster hits.”
Water encroachment continues until work can begin after passage of a new WRDA bill, a measure not likely to take place soon. Federal authorization of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project is dependent upon work completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
