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WASHINGTON – As Congress works to craft the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024, members of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee gathered on Wednesday to discuss the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Civil Works Program with Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor and USACE Commanding General and Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General Todd Spellmon.

Senator Cramer first questioned General Spellmon about the USACE’s approach for addressing existing issues at the Snake Creek Embankment, which plays an integral role in ensuring water supply to roughly 50% of North Dakota’s population. Senator Cramer has advocated for the 43-foot head differential to be removed and underlying maintenance issues with the embankment to be addressed so water supply to the McClusky Canal would not be cut off. General Spellmon acknowledged the differential removal and outlined plans to fix the underlying structural problems.

“We’re wrapping up the Dam Safety Modification Study. I want to take this out of the dam safety realm and put it into drought resiliency. I have directed the Omaha district to come back with two structural solutions— seepage berms and an embankment,” said General Spellmon. “If we receive a FY24 appropriation, we will take 500k of dam safety wedge funds and we will do 30% designs on both of those structural solutions to restore the full capability of that embankment, and we'll bring those to the administration and to Congress for their consideration.”

“I always say we don’t have a water problem in North Dakota, we have a water distribution problem and this is an important part of that infrastructure. Thank you for the update,” said Senator Cramer.

Senator Cramer then questioned Assistant Secretary Connor on language he authored in WRDA 2022 establishing a Western Water Cooperative Committee. This was a top priority of Senator Cramer’s, providing North Dakota and other Western states with a platform to bring localized problems directly to the USACE to engage in dialogue and help ensure USACE policies align with state water rights and laws. After hearing from some states, including North Dakota, about the USACE’s delay in establishing the committee, Senator Cramer asked Assistant Secretary Connor for an update on its implementation. Connor said they have teed up the actions necessary to move forward with the committee, but they are waiting for budget resources to complete its rollout.

“The process for establishing that committee is to get a Federal Advisory Committee Charter through the Department of Defense. I believe that has been completed on this one to designate a federal officer, provide the correct training. We've done that. We have teed up the actions necessary to move forward with the committee, and then we need appropriations, budgeted resources, one or the other, to move forward with the activity because this one in particular is going to be fairly expensive,” said Assistant Secretary Connor. “We're paying for the travel, the logistics of getting folks together with respect to that. Once again, we are going to lag on any budget resources with respect to post WRDA authorization before, or we can use work plan. Neither one which we have had the opportunity to move forward with. We are teed up, ready to go, but we do need the resources to implement.”

As Congress continues its efforts to enact a Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill, Senator Cramer is working to secure USACE funding to establish the committee.

Additionally, Senator Cramer highlighted the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) civil trial occurring in North Dakota. The state is seeking reimbursement for more than $38 million in damages and policing costs incurred from DAPL protests in 2016 and 2017.

Senator Cramer concluded his questioning by asking Assistant Secretary Connor for an update concerning the status of a final environmental impact statement (EIS).

“We are in week three of the Federal Tort Claims trial in North Dakota, trying to get some money from the federal government to pay for the damages and the policing of the violent protests that the Corps facilitated on Corps land,” said Cramer. “The [Dakota Access Pipeline has] been safely moving hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day to market for several years now, and we still don’t have the EIS. It has been delayed multiple times. You spoke a little while ago about a durable solution. What is the status of the final EIS?”

“We issued the draft EIS last fall. I think we opened up with a 45-day comment period, extended it once. That's my reference to receiving 200,000 comments, 30,000 of which are uniquely substantive that we've got to refer to. We are still on track for moving forward as quickly as we can to be in a position to issue a final EIS this fall with a record of decision somewhere in the 30-to-60-day timeframe after that,” responded Assistant Secretary Connor. “I understand the frustration with how long it's taken. It's an example though of when we try and take shortcuts, and we do an environmental assessment as opposed to an EIS and then we get litigation, and we get setbacks and the overall long-term structure is that. I we're trying to think this through, do it right, respond, do correct tribal consultation, integrate their concerns and our responses into the process, and get this product done so it can stand the test of time.”

The second week of the North Dakota v. United States trial officially concluded on Friday. Click here to read the latest on the trial.