Norton Gets Army Corps Assurances on Spring Valley, New Potomac Levee, and Anacostia River Clean-Up

At Hearing, Norton Gets Army Corps Assurances on Spring Valley, New Potomac Levee, and the 10-Year Anacostia River Clean-Up Plan

March 9, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) yesterday got commitments from Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp, U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps), on three critical issues facing the District of Columbia. At a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, on which Norton is a senior member, General Van Antwerp assured Norton that the Army Corps has sufficient funds to immediately increase their presence at the Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) in the Northwest D.C. Spring Valley neighborhood if more World War I munitions were discovered, which were once tested there. Gen. Van Antwerp told Norton that the Army Corps would be able to use money from a fund for FUDS sites. Van Antwerp also told Norton that, despite budget cuts and reduced budget requests, the Army Corps remains on schedule to complete the Potomac Levee here by September of this year, relieving businesses and homeowners in Southwest D.C. of the need to purchase flood insurance. Norton was able to successfully delay the new D.C. Flood Insurance Rate Maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which identify Special Flood Hazard Areas in the District and throughout the U.S., until she got federal funds to build the levee. Norton got $5.8 million in federal stimulus funds for construction of the levee, which broke ground last fall.

Norton also got an update on the 10-year comprehensive action plan for cleanup of the Anacostia River mandated by Norton's Anacostia Watershed Initiative, the first bill for the comprehensive cleanup of the Anacostia River. She learned at the hearing that the plan is currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget for a final decision concerning the next round of funding, which was rolled out by the Corps last spring. Norton was successful in getting her bill included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007.