U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Following the Revolutionary War, where military engineering proved important to American independence, President George Washington and Congress recognized the need for a group of experts to help the American armed forces and the early Republic. The Continental Congress had organized this corps of the army in 1775, and the U.S. Congress followed suit with its formal legal creation in 1802. Over the next 40 years, the corps was repeatedly disbanded and reestablished according to need. While the corps distinguished itself in military activities throughout the 19th century, the corp’s development coincided with the great period of westward expansion and economic growth, especially through the development of harbors and waterways, which would become the agency’s central task for the next century and a half.

In its early stages, the Army Corps of Engineers were central to exploration in the U.S. West, including expeditions through the Rocky Mountains. They also surveyed the lines for the earliest western railroads. So too, they assisted in the planning and construction of important public buildings, especially construction projects in the area of Washington, D.C., such as the Capitol, the General Post Office, the city’s aqueducts, the custom houses, and the marine hospitals.

The main objectives of the corps, however, came to relate to matters of river and harbor improvement and the interest of commerce and speedy transit between locations. The corps was crucial in the planning and construction of the Panama Canal, coastal surveys, and planning and construction of lighthouses. In addition to water infrastructure, this mandate expanded over time to include services in the area of responses to natural and manmade disasters and environmental management and restoration. An important part of civil works is the maintenance and improvement of channels of water to help with their navigation. The corps also works to protect against flood damage to areas where high amounts of wreckage are prone to occur. They advise communities on zoning regulations and warn people about possible flooding conditions in their area. During the period from 1991 to 2000, the United States suffered from $45 billion worth of property damage, and the Corps of Engineers estimates that they prevented more than $208 billion of further damage.

Emergency Response

The Corps of Engineers also responds to such disasters and emergencies on state and local levels. Most of these situations involve water emergencies and the corps conducts their activities under the Stafford Disaster and Emergency Assistance Act and the Flood and Coastal Emergency Act. Water research and development is another program supported by the corps for the general public. The facilities set up by the corps conduct research in areas like water systems, soil and rock mechanics, earthquake engineering, coastal engineering, and also the effects of weapons on specific structures.

Perhaps the Army Corp’s greatest challenge has been its mission, assigned since 1850, to manage flooding on the Mississippi River. It has done so through the construction of a complex system of locks, dams, and levees that have fundamentally transformed the river into a tame transportation system. The costs of doing so have included the destruction of a great many wetlands and the creation of many high maintenance locations where levees hold back flood waters against growing populations, as in New Orleans.

At times, this development-oriented mission has put the corps into conflict with both environmental interests and political agencies and offices. Most notably in 1977, shortly after the election of President James Earl Carter himself an engineer announced his intention to de-fund 19 planned water development projects (predominantly dams), eleven of which were Army Corps projects. Through their congressional allies on the appropriations committee, the corps was able to maintain its ongoing projects and actually extend funding for new water management projects over the next year. The successful showdown with the president shows the power and independence of the Army Corps and the way its development-oriented mandate has aided in building alliances for protection of its federally budgeted projects. Nevertheless, it remains a target of the environmental community, who continue to associate the corps with destruction of native waterways and habitat. An increased effort on the part of the corps to reach out to this community has yielded only limited results.

The corps has demonstrated remarkable adaptivity, however, in the face of changing political and environmental conditions. While maintaining its military mission, it has expanded its domestic mission, and come to face continued challenges to its budgets and existence by taking on more new responsibilities. When the National Environmental Policy Act was passed in 1969, for example, with its added burden of environmental impact assessments for all federal activities, the corps embraced the problem and revised its procedures to become one of the key providers of such assessments for the government.

A further example of this adaptation is the remarkable turnaround of the corps from a dredger and filler of wetlands to an agency that now protects and constructs them. Through Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, of 1972, the corps became a key provisioner of permits for dredging and filling wetlands, and an agency increasingly associated with conservation efforts. Indeed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has come to be a specialist in ecosystem restoration, environmental stewardship such as protecting wildlife habitats from pollution and wetlands and waterway regulation. The corps also assists in the cleanup of sites that are contaminated with hazardous and radioactive waste.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently made up of approximately 34,600 civilian members and 650 military members. Some of these people include biologists, hydrologists, geologists, engineers, and scientists. The corps headquarters is in Washington, D.C., and there is another satellite headquarters in Alexandria, VA. The corps is separated into eight divisions and is supported by 41 local districts.

Bibliography:

Brevet Brigadier-General Henry Abbot, “The Corps of Engineers” (2002), U.S. Army Center of Military History, history.army.mil;
Clarke, J. and D. C. McCool, Staking out the Terrain: Power and Per]ormance Among Natural Resource Agencies (Albany, State University of New York Press, 2006)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “United States Army Corps of Engineers” (2005), www.usace.army.mil.