Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1987

8

Special Functions

Civil Works is the collective title for the Corps of Engineers' program regulating water resources. The program includes a variety of activities that consist of planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining facilities and managing real estate to develop the nation's essential water resources and improve its rivers, harbors, and waterways for navigation, flood control, hydroelectric power, recreation, fish and wildlife, and related purposes that are useful in both peace and wartime execution of its mission.

The Army's role in civil construction can be traced to 1824, when Congress, acting upon the recommendation of President James Monroe, passed the first Rivers and Harbors Act appropriating funds for COE use in clearing the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Since that time, the development and maintenance of inland waterways and harbor channels has remained one of the Army's primary civil missions.

In addition to its civil construction function, the Civil Works program regulates the Corps' dredging activities. In 1972 and 1977, the 1899 law was broadened under the Clean Water Acts to include supervising the emission of dredged or fill material in wetlands and other aquatic environments. As a result of the Clean Water legislation, the Corps has dredging responsibility in a total of 400 ports in some of the nation's largest cities.

In 1986 the most significant law passed on behalf of the Civil Works program, Public Law (PL) 99-662, the Water Resources and Development Act, became effective. In addition to redefining the criteria for evaluating COE projects, the act established rules for sharing financial and intellectual (engineering) responsibility for COE projects with the private sector. The latter provision set a precedence for cost sharing with the community in recognition of mandatory federal budgetary constraints and the corresponding requirement for private dollars from communities that require COE assistance. Defined and described as cost sharing, the law generally designates the types of projects and percentage of cash that civilian sponsors are required to pay

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for COE constructed or maintained projects; for example, community sponsors are responsible for 100 percent of projects done exclusively for the community. These include the construction of hydroelectric power projects and municipal and industrial water supply projects.

The Corps continues its work of operating about 225 locks and maintaining some 12,000 miles of channels on the inland waterways, which carry one-tenth of the total U.S. intercity cargo. The agency is also responsible for building and maintaining channels at 105 major commercial harbors (2 million or more tons of commerce annually) and about 400 smaller harbors.

The Corps also operates a fleet of 19 dredges (4 seagoing) and over 2,000 other vessels, and contracts with private industry dredges to move annually about 350 million cubic yards of dredged material for construction and maintenance of navigation channels. This fiscal year, Civil Works performed approximately 270 million cubic yards of maintenance dredging at a cost of approximately $440 million. This includes dredging for the Mississippi River and Tributaries water resources development program in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Major new dredging construction starts this year include Baltimore Harbor, Maryland; Norfolk Harbor, Virginia; Kings Bay, Georgia; Kill Van Kull, New York; Mississippi River in Louisiana; and Mobile Harbor, Alabama.

Because of its navigation and flood control responsibility, COE projects produce annually almost 30 percent of the nation's hydropower or 3.5 percent of its total electric energy, at 70 locations. This year the Corps continued to maintain the 115 lakes for which the agency is responsible. Water from these lakes stores 275.2 million acre-feet of water for use in agricultural, municipal, and industrial pursuits. Additionally, COE continued operating the more than 2,000 recreation areas at its projects, while maintaining the leases on a vast number of properties that are being used by state, local, and private park developers.

In the performance of its responsibility to participate in reimbursable international technical projects, the Corps is assisting the Republic of Korea (ROK) by developing the Han River for navigational purposes. Authorization for such projects is granted under the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act and administered by the Department of State and the Agency for International Development. For such projects, the COE is technically an employee of the state government for which it works.

This year the Corps continued to discharge its obligation to provide emergency relief to civilians by administering emergency

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assistance and cooperating with federal, state, and local authorities during the flood of 1987. To prevent flooding by controlling the water distribution in the surrounding areas during this emergency, the reservoirs of the Corps' New England Division closed the gates on thirty-five of its dams on five major river basins. On two similar occasions this year, also as a result of two spring storms within five days, the New England Division's reservoirs stored nearly 275 billion gallons of water to prevent flooding to surrounding areas.

The thirty-six districts of the COE are authorized to assist civilian authorities during emergencies or natural disasters (i.e., floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions). During FY 1987, the Corps responded to a total of 48 flood-related situations and carried out 136 emergency repair operations at a combined cost of $31 million.

In connection with its flood control activities, the Corps dedicated a massive $206 million structure, which it constructed to regulate the flow of the Mississippi River into the nearby Atchafalaya River in May 1987. Known as the Old River Auxiliary Control Structure, the edifice reinforces the original control structures that regulate water distribution between the two rivers by channeling 70 percent of the water down the Mississippi River and funneling the remaining 30 percent up the Atchafalaya.

Appropriations for the Civil Works program in FY 1987 totaled $3.1 billion, an increase of $401 million from FY 1986. Table 7 identifies the funding by title. A majority of the budget was allocated to specific projects identified under the category "General Investigations and Construction and Operation and Maintenance." Tables 8-10 identify the projects for which this money was allocated.

TABLE 7 - FY 1987 APPROPRIATIONS FOR CIVIL WORKS PROGRAM
(In millions)

SOURCE: Secretary of the Army's Report on Civil Works Activities, Fiscal Year 1987 (1 Oct 86-30 Sep 87), Vol I, p. 6.

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TABLE 8 - GENERAL INVESTIGATIONS APPROPRIATION ACCOUNT
(In millions)

SOURCE: Secretary of the Army's Report on Civil Works Activities, Fiscal Year 1987, Vol I, p. 7.

TABLE 9 - CONSTRUCTION, GENERAL ACCOUNT
(In millions)

SOURCE: Secretary of the Army's Report on Civil Works Activities, Fiscal Year 1987, Vol I, p. 7.

TABLE 10 - OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE, GENERAL
(In millions)

SOURCE: Secretary of the Army's Report on Civil Works Activities, Fiscal Year 1987, Vol I, p. 7.

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In accordance with congressional legislation in effect at the time, the Army trained Nicaraguan commanders of contra troops on small unit tactics and weaponry at various locations in Central America and the United States.

Increased military cooperation between the United States and the People's Republic of China characterized Secretary of Defense Weinberger's visit to that country this year. Subsequent visits from the Chiefs of Staff of the respective U.S. Armed Forces followed.

This year the nation commemorated the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution by convening a joint session of Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 15-16 July 1987. Moving both legislative houses to Philadelphia for the commemoration event required significant support from DOD. The Secretary of the Army was named the DOD Executive Agent for this activity, and the Directorate of Military Support (DMS) became the Executive Action Agent responsible for coordinating the logistics for the move with the other military services and the USAR representatives as well as for generally assisting Congress with transportation, security, communications, medical, and aviation resources.

In FY 1987, the Department of the Army contributed to the success of the Pan American Games by providing housing for the athletes at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and subsequently serving as Executive Agency. The ASA (I&L) had oversight responsibility, while the Director of Military Support, DCSOPS, served as action agent whose primary responsibility was to assist law enforcement officials. Following the completion of the games and the departure of the athletes, over 60,000 pieces of equipment were recovered and transported to various federal organizations.

The Army continued to cooperate with national and international agencies to support U.S. drug interdiction efforts. In South and Central America, the United States extended its efforts to prevent drug traffickers from reaching the U.S. by committing approximately 150 U.S. Army personnel, including support personnel and six UH-60 helicopters, to Bolivia on 14 July 1986. Support for the Bolivian effort came from the USSOUTHCOM in Panama at the invitation of the Bolivian government and the behest of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The troops were expected to remain in Bolivia until 15 November 1986. The mission of these troops was to eradicate major cocaine production areas by fighting

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defoliation and transporting Bolivian Army troops to the northern and central parts of Bolivia.

Legislation authorizing DOD to support the drug interdiction effort became effective on 27 October 1986 under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. The act authorized $40 million for use in purchasing eight UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to be loaned to U.S. Customs. Of the amount appropriated, $18 million was used to provide four helicopters for this purpose. While implications of the statute are still evolving under the guidance of its lead agency, JCS, the law requires the Secretary of Defense to provide a list of additional assistance and a plan for lending appropriate equipment by 27 January 1987. The Secretary of Defense's list of support areas will include surveillance, reserve components, communications, intelligence, aviation, marine vessels, and land vehicles. Input to the Secretary of Defense's supported agencies will identify specific requirements, equipment availability, and readiness impacts that cannot be determined without this assistance. The report will demonstrate the cost of sealing U.S. borders to drugs in terms of its impact on readiness.

During this fiscal year, aviation elements of the Army continued to support Operation Bahamas (OPBAT) and Turks/Caicos Islands on a 24 hours per day, 7 days per week basis. OPBAT was initiated in 1982 when the Royal Bahamian Police Force requested assistance from the U.S. Government to stem the flow of drugs through the Bahamas. The operations consist of the Royal Bahamian Police Force, DEA, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Coast Guard, and Turks and Caicos Islands Police with transportation assistance from U.S. Army UH-60 helicopters. The mission requires that these helicopters be furnished overwater equipment. DEA and Coast Guard personnel directed the OPBAT helicopter operations and coordinated all other interdiction operations in the Bahamas from the U.S. embassy in Nassau.

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