Vicksburg, Miss. -- (July 7, 2011) The Mississippi Valley Division continues to assess damages and prioritize repairs to the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) System in the aftermath of historic Mississippi River flooding that broke flow elevation records at many locations. The repairs will ensure the future integrity of flood risk management projects along the Mississippi and its major tributaries and restore function to critical project components. All of this recovery work will require significant funding.
Without supplemental funding to address the flood and navigation system repair costs, the Corps is looking at internal funding sources to reset and repair the most critical flood risk management projects damaged by this year`s event.
The Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FC&CE) appropriation is used for flood fighting, repair and rehabilitation of qualifying non-federal flood and storm protection facilities, and emergency dredging, among other things. The Secretary of the Army has the authority to transfer funds to the FC&CE appropriation from other flood control appropriations to meet emergency requirements.
Funds that are transferred are revoked from individual studies and projects for which the funds are surplus. A total of $52 million has been transferred to date. Thus far, only funds surplus to FY 2011 and FY 2012 requirements have been transferred. However, additional transfers are very likely.
In some cases the funds transferred ultimately would have been used on the projects from which transferred. However, the needs of flood fighting and response are more pressing and immediate. Without additional appropriations, projects losing funds can compete for funds in FY 2013 and beyond through the budget process.
This year alone, the MR&T System prevented approximately $100 billion in damages. Since 1928, the MR&T has prevented over $470 billion dollars in damages at an investment of approximately $14 billion, for a 34-1 return on investment for our nation.-end-
