Norton Secures Funding for Downtown Levee Protecting Businesses & Buildings Near the Mall (6/17/09)
Norton Secures Funding for Downtown Levee Protecting Businesses and Buildings Near The Mall and SE and SW Neighborhoods
June 17, 2009
After hearings and direct conversations with the heads of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) went to her Water Resources Subcommittee hearing on the Army Corps of Engineers budget yesterday evening specifically to verify, for the record, the Corps promise to her that funds for Potomac levee would be the responsibility of the Corps and that the District would be relieved of costs that the city has already begun to incur. The District was forced to spend the first $2.5 million of almost $7 million costs when FEMA imposed new 100 year flood plain maps that incorporated parts of neighborhoods and businesses in Southwest and Southeast Washington near the baseball stadium, although the lion's share of the floodplain is on federal land, including the National Mall and Federal Triangle, largely endangering federal buildings and property.
The Congresswoman, chair of the subcommittee with primary jurisdiction over FEMA, held a hearing on the practical impact of the flood map for the District and other jurisdiction on April 2, 2009, and raised concern about the cost and burden on homeowners, businesses and local jurisdictions. She also discussed the issue directly with the chief engineer of the Army Corps and received assurances that he understood that the downtown levees are the responsibility of the federal government. "At a time of deep recession, we were determined to take this federal cost off the District's books without delay." Norton said, "The Potomac levee is a temporary levee downtown built by the Corps to protect the Mall and the surrounding federal property. Although, the levee is clearly a federal responsibility, in these toughest of times the D.C. government has had to lay out $2.5 million for a federal responsibility when the city could least afford it. This reimbursement was important to make the city whole."
The Potomac Levee will improve sections of the National Mall from the Washington monument to Constitution Gardens, crossing 17th street just to the north of the World War II memorial. The embankments will be improved and a pop-up barrier will be installed at grade on 17th.