Forensic Engineering - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 186

the Fernley breach remains unknown. Burrowing gophers are a leading suspect, though
poor maintenance likely played a role, too.
The flood in Fernley highlighted the vulnerability of the estimated hundred thou-
sand miles of levees in America and underscored the much larger challenge of aging in-
frastructure nationwide—from collapsing tunnels to sagging bridges, broken highways,
decrepit ports, outdated canals and locks, congested airports, and underfinanced rail
systems.
In the 2009 edition of its biennial Report Card on American Infrastructure , the
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the nation's oldest engineering society,
rated fifteen categories, from Aviation to Schools, with a grading system that ran from
A, for “Exceptional,” to F, for “Failing.” Overall, ASCE gave the nation's infrastructure
a D, or “Poor,” grade. Waterworks earned some of the worst grades of all: the nation's
dams were given a D, while drinking water, wastewater treatment plants, inland wa-
terways, and levees all received grades of D-minus. The nation's flood defenses were
singled out as a growing problem. Of the 85,000 dams reviewed by ASCE, over 4,000
of them were considered “deficient” in 2009, and of those, 1,819 were classified as “high
hazard” cases.
Many levees are in poor shape, ASCE noted, and the cost of upgrading them could
be “over $100 billion.” (That number could easily climb higher, once the Army Corps of
Engineers has assessed levees across the country.) But as of 2009, Congress had com-
mitted only $1.13 billion to levee upkeep.
Business has also ignored levees. Developers, abetted by a vague Supreme Court rul-
ing, have rushed to fill in wetlands and build on flood-plains. In the 2006 Rapanoscase,
which centered on a developer who had filled in a wetland in Michigan, the court's rul-
ing confused regulators about what legally constitutes a wetland and how to enforce the
Clean Water Act. Wetlands absorb rainfall and waves and help to mitigate the impact of
flooding. When they are filled in and built upon, history has shown, the displaced water
will try to reassert itself. The result is flooding.
Flood protection clearly needs to made a national priority. But to fix America's levees
and reform its flood-control policies, the nation will first have to fix the Army Corps of
Engineers.
AMERICA'S HANDYMAN
he Corps got its start on June 16, 1775 , when the fledgling Continental Congress or-
ganized an army that included a chief engineer, Colonel Richard Gridley, and two as-
sistants. The three men built up a cadre of soldier-builders who fortified Boston with