BUFFALO, NY – President Biden Budget for fiscal year 2023 includes more than $6.6 billion in discretionary funding for the Civil Works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with just over $141 million set aside for Buffalo District projects.
Of great significance for the region is an additional $600,000 for the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, a new start project that includes the three Great Lakes districts: Buffalo, Chicago, and Detroit. The goal is to create a plan identifying vulnerable coastal areas and recommending actions to bolster the coastal resources’ ability to withstand, recover from and adapt to future hydrologic uncertainty with respect to built and natural coastal environments. Recent high-water events across the Great Lakes brought about the study’s need.
The Civil Works budget funds $45 million the Operation and Maintenance Program, which includes the maintenance of federal shipping channels and navigation structures within the Buffalo District’s area of responsibility including the Black Rock Lock, and operation and maintenance of the Mount Morris Dam. These structures are part of the Great Lakes Navigation System, which provides significant economic benefit to the Nation, in addition to added shoreline protection and flood reduction benefits to areas behind the structures.
Included in the President’s Budget is $96.6 million in funding for projects within the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. The FUSRAP program was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate and clean up or control sites that were part of the Nation’s early atomic energy and weapons program. Activities at the sites that are eligible for FUSRAP were conducted by the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) or the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), both predecessors of the Department of Energy (DOE).
More details at https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/2980359/presidents-budget-delivers-103-million-for-the-lower-watershed-of-lakes-erie-an/
