§3307 Assessment of Corps of Engineers Levees

Summary

The Secretary must regularly check levees the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for to see if changing them — including moving parts or adding natural, nature-based features — would better reduce flood risk, make communities more flood-resilient, or restore rivers and floodplains to improve the environment without making protection worse. If a levee is run by a non‑Federal owner, the Secretary will do an assessment only if that owner asks and pays 50 percent of the cost. Each assessment must say how many people and buildings would be at risk if the levee failed, how often the owner got emergency flood help and how much repairs have cost, how the levee would work with heavier rain or climate change, the costs and benefits (including environmental and community effects) of reconnecting floodplains, and what studies or data exist. Levees that flooded two or more times in any 10‑year period and got emergency help should be prioritized. The work should match the cost and scope of the Secretary’s earlier initial assessments. Reports on results must be sent to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee no later than 18 months after December 23, 2022 and periodically after that. The findings must go into the national levee database and be posted online. Up to $10,000,000 is authorized to pay for this.