ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) just released the FY 2016 Municipal, Industrial and Irrigation Water Supply Database Report, and it is available for a free download at the IWR Library website. This report presents the status of the USACE Municipal and Industrial (M&I) water supply database through Fiscal Year 2016. The report primarily focuses on agreements with state and local interests to use storage in Corps reservoir projects for M&I water supply needs under the authority of the 1958 Water Supply Act. Of the approximately 380 reservoir projects operated and maintained by the Corps, 136 currently contain authorized storage space for M&I water supply. These 136 projects are located in 23 of the Corps 38 Civil Works districts and in 25 states. There are 350 separate agreements with state and local interests at these projects for a total of 9.8 million acre-feet of storage. At current price levels the total investment cost of this storage space is estimated at 6.1 billion dollars.
Corps district offices expend an average total of approximately one million dollars per year to manage these agreements. In return, water supply users reimburse the U.S. Treasury for approximately 60 million dollars per year in project investment and operating costs (see section B-10 of this report), and the water supply agreements are estimated to deliver on the order of six billion dollars annually in benefits (see IWR Report 2013-R-09, “Value to the Nation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Programs”).
The current USACE Civil Works Strategic Plan contains one objective with two performance measures related to the M&I water supply program:
Objective 5.4. Provide water supply storage in partnership with state and local interests;
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Measure 5.4.a, Percent of acre-feet of storage under contract versus acre-feet available; and
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Measure 5.4.b, Percent of investment costs recovered versus the total investment costs available for recovery.
The data and summaries presented in this report provide the most currently available status on these performance measures. The majority of the information comes from the Corps’ Operation and Maintenance Business Information Link (OMBIL) database. The report incorporates several new items not included in previous years’ reports, including data updates (2014-16), additional costs that have not been previously reported, specific information on conduits, and projects not included in the database.
The report is also intended to provide broader information on the operation of Corps projects as authorized for water supply purposes in recognition of ongoing interest evidenced through various public, Congressional and Administration inquiries in recent years. The report discusses water supply agreements and arrangements at Corps projects under authorities other than the Water Supply Act, and the scope of authorized irrigation uses at 46 Corps reservoir projects in the western United States.
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For more information, www.iwr.usace.army.mil
Download the report here