North Atlantic Division Civil Works

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Quick Facts

Civil Works Boundaries

All or parts of 13 states (plus DC): CT, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NY, NJ, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV
16,700 miles of shoreline
2,700 miles of navigation channels
179 recreation areas
33 projects authorized by Congress
8 river basins
5 Federal canals
3 50-foot ports
2 major bays

Civil Works

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works mission is varied and wide-ranging. Its multi-purpose projects provide benefits for navigation, flood risk management, hydropower production, fish and wildlife, environmental stewardship, recreation, irrigation and municipal water supply. The North Atlantic Division manages an annual civil works program of roughly $650 million, executed by its five stateside district offices in all or parts of 14 states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

Navigation

The Corps’ navigation responsibilities are planning and constructing navigation channels, locks and dams, and dredging to maintain channel depths in U.S. harbors and inland waterways. In partnership with local port authorities, Corps personnel oversee dredging and construction projects at dozens of ports and harbors in the Northeast. Five of the nation’s top ports are located in North Atlantic Division — Boston and Portland harbors, the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Port of Philadelphia, Baltimore Harbor, and Norfolk Harbor (Hampton Roads). Roughly 35 percent of U.S. waterborne tonnage is handled through ports in the division’s area.

Flood Risk Management

Reducing risk and preventing flood-related damages can be accomplished by several means — through structural measures, such as reservoirs, levees, channels, and floodwalls that modify the characteristics of floods; or with non-structural measures, such as flood plain evacuation, floodproofing, and floodway acquisitions that alter the way people use these areas and reduce the susceptibility of human activities to flood risk. North Atlantic Division operates 54 dams, 63 miles of levees, and 22 storm and hurricane barriers. The annual damages prevented by the division’s projects average about $754 million.

Hydropower

As the largest operator of hydroelectric power plants in the United States, and one of the largest in the world, Corps’ hydropower plants provide 100 billion kilowatt-hours annually, enough power to serve more than 10 million households. The 75 hydropower plants installed at Corps dams and reservoirs produce one-fourth of the nation's hydroelectric power.

Because of hydropower’s significant advantages over other energy sources —clean, efficient, reliable, and renewable — it plays an increasingly important role in meeting the Nation's energy needs. North Atlantic Division does not have any current hydropower projects.

Ecosystem Restoration

With the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969, the Corps integrated environmental concerns into our day-to-day business. In 1990, Congress authorized the Corps to undertake environmental restoration, for the benefit of fish and wildlife habitat improvements, as a new mission area. We pride ourselves on being good stewards of the environment. In the planning of new projects, we address environmental issues from the outset of every study and carry these forward through design and construction and into project operation and maintenance. Similarly, environmental issues are addressed in the design and construction of military and support-for-others projects. Through the Corps' ecosystem restoration program, our multi-disciplinary team provides a comprehensive approach for addressing the problems associated with disturbed and degraded ecological resources. The Corps team works with states, local governments, and other federal and regional entities to find solutions to water and related land resource problems. Together we examine the condition of existing ecosystems to determine ways to restore them through techniques such as wetland creation and restoration, streambank stabilization, and reclamation and treatment of abandoned mine lands producing acid mine drainage.

Recreation

The Corps is one of the federal government’s largest providers of outdoor recreational opportunities. It operates more than 5,000 recreational sites at its lakes and projects in 43 states, logging more than 260 million visits per year. State and local park authorities and private interests operate nearly another 2,000 recreation areas on Corps lands. Hundreds of educational and volunteer programs help visitors appreciate the need for conscientious environmental stewardship of the 12 million acres under our control. In 2019, the North Atlantic Division saw nearly 10 million visits to its projects, including seven lakes, 2,477 campsites, and 763 miles of trails. In 2019, almost $350 million was spent by visitors within 30 miles of the division’s projects.

Regulatory Program

The mission of the Corps’ regulatory program is to protect the Nation's waters for current and future generations, while allowing for reasonable economic development. Regulatory efforts protect a wide variety of aquatic resources, including wetlands, rivers, streams, tidal waters, coral reefs, shellfish beds, and the oceans. Our permit process is designed to minimize environmental impacts of construction and dredging activities in U.S. waters and to ensure that such efforts are thoughtful and coordinated. In 2020, the North Atlantic Division’s regulatory program issued more than 7,500 permit decisions, as well as 2,300 jurisdictional determinations.

Section 408 Program

Section 408

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Section 408 program allows another party, such as a local government, company, or individual, to alter a USACE Civil Works project. Given the widespread locations of these projects, many embedded within communities, over time there may be a need to either alter or occupy these projects and their associated lands. Reasons for alterations could include improvements to the projects, relocation of part of the project, or installing utilities or other non-project features.

The Section 408 program verifies that changes to authorized USACE Civil Works projects will not be injurious to the public interest or will not impair the usefulness of the project. This requirement was established in Section 14 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which has since been amended several times, and is codified at 33 U.S.C. 408–the section of U.S. Code that gives the program its name.

Division Engineer’s Announcement of Special Emergency Processing Procedures for Activities Subject to E.O. 14156

The purpose of this announcement is to advise the public that the United States (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers may employ emergency procedures to process requests to alter a Corps Civil Works project under 33 USC §408 (Section 408) if the request is associated with an activity that facilitates the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy sources as directed in Executive Order 14156, Sections 2 and 4. In that Executive Order the President declared a national energy emergency and found that expediting certain activities using emergency procedures was necessary to address an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy. Because of that threat, it may be necessary to undertake a review of a Section 408 request within a time period less than the normal time needed to process the request under standard review procedures to minimize the impact of a an immediate, unforeseen, and significant economic hardship and associated threat to national security and foreign policy. For activities meeting the definition of an “energy” or “energy resources” project in EO 14156, emergency procedures to process a Section 408 request may be used, including the faster processing times described above and the procedures approved by North Atlantic Division in accordance with 33 CFR § 325.2(e)(4) in appropriate circumstances.

A determination of whether a specific Section 408 request qualifies for emergency procedures in response to the national emergency declared in EO 14156 will be made individually based upon a case-specific evaluation of each request.

If you have any questions concerning these special emergency processing procedures, please contact Ann Marie DiLorenzo at ann.m.dilorenzo@usace.army.mil.