The White House has released final federal interagency guidelines for evaluating planned water resources projects, the last piece of its five-year effort to rewrite the current, 31-year-old planning guide for the Corps of Engineers and three other agencies and broaden it to cover more agencies.
But Congress, in the recently enacted “Cromnibus” spending package, has blocked the Corps from implementing the new water resources Principles, Requirements and Guidelines (PR&G) through the end of fiscal year 2015.
The legislation doesn’t bar funding for other agencies to carry out the planning document.
In releasing the new interagency guidelines—the “G” in the PR&G—on Dec. 17, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) described the 1983 document as having “a narrow set of parameters to evaluate water investments.”
Mike Boots, CEQ’s chief, said in a statement, “By making smart investments in water infrastructure, the federal government can save taxpayer money and promote economic growth while protecting communities against extreme weather and other disasters.”