In last year’s Water Resources Development Act, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to rewrite its water-resources “Principles and Guidelines” for the first time in 25 years. The first part of the Corps’ proposed revision, covering general principles, is out, and it has sparked criticism from industry and environmental groups.
Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works John Paul Woodley Jr. has called the P&G the Corps’ “yardstick” for evaluating projects. The current version, published in 1983, set “national economic development” as the sole federal objective in planning water projects. Critics have called that criterion too narrow.