Arkansas Tops The List (For a bad reason. Again)

The United States Army Corp of Engineers has recently released a list of 114 levees in 16 states that have received a ranking of 'unacceptable'. I was expecting California or Louisiana to take the first place spot, but both were surpassed by the State of Arkansas. Arkansas has 30 levees with such a rating. Most of the levees were turned over to local governments and fell into the current status due to other spending priorities.

The Corp is warning state and local governments that their deficiencies are so severe that it can be "reasonably foreseen" that they will not perform properly in a major flood. People who rely on the levees should "be aware that there is reason for concern," says Tammy Conforti, head of the corps' levee safety program.

The corps' levee inspections were revamped under a public safety initiative started after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A round of 63 levees with unacceptable maintenance lost eligibility for federal rehabilitation aid last year after they were not fixed within a one-time, one-year grace period.

Now, the addition of 114 levees to that list leaves a total of 177 nationwide that are so poorly maintained that they don't qualify for federal rehabilitation. That's 9% of the nearly 2,000 levees the corps inspects.

There are thousands of levees nationwide — the government has no precise number — that aren't subject to federal oversight, often because they were built by local or private sponsors. And many big levees, including some on the Mississippi River and around New Orleans, are federal projects where the corps handles major maintenance itself.

The corps will alert the Federal Emergency Management Agency to poorly maintained levees. If states and communities cannot certify to FEMA that those levees will handle a 100-year flood — one that has a 1% chance of hitting each year — owners of property behind them may have to buy flood insurance.

"Many of the levee boards don't have the funds to maintain them and really haven't … for years," says Michael Borengasser, National Flood Insurance Program coordinator for the state of Arkansas.

Federal taxpayers already have paid to rebuild many levees that failed in floods because of poor maintenance, says Larry Larson, director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. "For years, the corps has been threatening to kick them out of the (rehabilitation) program, but never really did," he adds. "Now, the corps is doing the right thing."



You can view the list of unacceptable levees here.