Purpose
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Levee Safety Program was created in 2006 to assess the integrity and viability of levees and to make sure that levee systems do not present unacceptable risks to the public, property, and environment.
Description
The basic objectives of the Levee Safety Program are to develop balanced and informed assessments of levees within the program; evaluate, prioritize, and justify levee safety decisions; and recommend improvements to public safety associated with levee systems. The Corps created the National Levee Database, inventoried all levees in the program and improved inspection procedures. The Corps is developing a method to manage its portfolio of levee systems and is reviewing and revising current levee-related policies and procedures.
The Levee Safety Program is composed of more than 14,000 miles of levees and includes: systems operated and maintained by the Corps; federally authorized systems locally operated, maintained and covered under the Corps Inspection of Completed Works program; and locally constructed, operated, and maintained systems in the Corps Rehabilitation and Inspection Program in accordance with Public Law 84‒99.
Status
The Corps, in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), continues to communicate our ongoing activities and identification of the benefits, risks and flood risk management measures on levee systems in our portfolio. The Corps has completed screening level assessments to understand the risks associated with each levee system, which will be utilized to inform the communication effort with local sponsors. Formal inspections of all federal levee systems are conducted on a five-year frequency to determine the ongoing eligibility of the system and evaluate operation and maintenance practices.
For levee systems with complex issues, project sponsors can maintain eligibility through the Corps system-wide improvement framework (SWIF) process while implementing improvements to the levee system. The project sponsors for the Burlington to Minot and Minot levee systems (eight systems total) have an approved SWIF and Section 408 plan (that is revisited every two years and reapproved). The sponsor has been submitting progress reports on remediation activities that are monitored by the Corps and they are developing a strategy to exit the SWIF process.
Levee Systems in St. Paul District Portfolio
Federally authorized levee systems, locally operated and maintained:
Red River of the North Basin – Enderlin, Fargo (Fourth Street South Levee), Argusville, Grand Forks, Pembina, Horace to West Fargo, West Fargo to Riverside, Fargo-Ridgewood, Wahpeton
Souris River Basin – Velva, Sawyer (2 systems), Renville County Park, Burlington to Minot (6 systems), Minot (2 systems)
Devils Lake Basin – Devils Lake, Tolna Coulee
Locally constructed, operated, and maintained (non-federal) levee systems in the Corps program:
Red River of the North Basin – Mapleton, Casselton, Lisbon (completing Initial Eligibility Inspection of system)