§1962–3 Water Resources Principles and Guidelines

Summary

The United States must make sure water projects match national priorities, help long-term economic growth, avoid harmful use of floodplains when possible, reduce harm if floodplains are used, and protect or restore natural systems while limiting unavoidable damage. The term "principles and guidelines" means the March 10, 1983 document called "Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies." The Secretary must update those principles and guidelines not later than 2 years after November 8, 2007. The updates must use best economic tools (including risk and uncertainty), include public safety, value benefits to low-income communities and nonstructural approaches, consider how a project interacts with other regional or watershed projects, use modern approaches like integrated and adaptive management, and make sure projects are justified by public benefits. The Secretary must consult the Secretary of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Council on Environmental Quality, and must seek public and expert comments. The Secretary must send the revisions and an explanation of each change and its likely impact to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and must make the revisions public, including on the Internet. The revised rules replace the prior ones for the Secretary’s projects except for projects or reevaluations already started before the revisions; completed studies remain valid. After finishing the revisions, the Secretary must tell Congress whether to repeal subsections (a) and (b) of section 1962d–17.