Category Archives: eWaterLogs

Thought you were getting dunes? Think again. Tragedy in Encinitas, Highway Bill with Climate Provisions Heads Out of Committee, Watch Out for Flying Umbrellas

Hurricane Season NOAA updated its hurricane outlook on August 8th, increasing the likelihood of an above-average storm season. Source: NOAA Stay up to date at the National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov and with Accuweather’s RealImpact tool. Is Your Beach Getting Dunes? Maybe Not Anymore. A strong decision came from Corps HQ last week to not allow…

Meet Your New HQ Chief of Planning, Resilient Highway Bill, E&W Spending, NFIP and FWS Assistant Secretary Re-Nominated

Hurricane Season Stay up to date at the National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov and with Accuweather’s RealImpact tool. NEW!! Sediment Management Workgroup on LinkedIn We know how important sediment is to the coast and to you and your job. That’s why we started the Sediment Management Workgroup on LinkedIn. Please join the conversation! The SMW is…

WRDA & Resilient Transportation on Capitol Hill, Tropics are Heating Up, NJ Coastal Resilience Center Announced, You Don’t Have Dunes Yet?

Hurricane Season is Really Here It took since May 20th, before Hurricane season started, to get our first named storm of the official hurricane season. Tropical Storm Barry was upgraded to hurricane status as it made landfall, leaving parts of Louisiana under a foot of water and more than 150,000 residents without power. While the…

House Passes Energy & Water Appropriations Bill, Flood Insurance Reforms

House Passes Energy & Water Appropriations Bill The House version of the bill includes $7.36 billion for the Corps of Engineers, and increase of $357 million from FY19 enacted and $2.53 billion above the president’s request. The majority of the bill language is status-quo for coastal projects, and we can expect some more muscle from…

Appropriations, Flood Insurance & Climate Change in Congress

House: Appropriations, Flood Insurance & Climate Change in Congress It sounds like legislators are stepping up to the challenge (maybe) of flood insurance. The House plans to pass its versions of appropriation bills this month. The Senate hasn’t started working yet on its version of spending bills. There is a lot of talk about climate…

Disaster Supplemental Signed Into Law

Supplemental The FY19 Disaster Supplemental has been signed into law. Click here for the bill. An important distinction in the language is whether or not the funds in each section pertain to natural disasters, or the named storm events. The $19.2 billion dollar bill provides a total of $3.3 billion to the Corps of Engineers…

China to the White House – “Stop the Tariffs or We’ll Stop Buying Your Debt”, Disaster Supplemental, Energy & Water

China to the White House – “Stop the Tariffs or We’ll Stop Buying Your Debt” That’s one way to stop this never-ending commitment to post-disaster spending. Congress has finalized its negotiations for the 2019 Disaster Supplemental bill, H.R. 2157. Trump says he supports it. The $19.2 billion dollar bill provides a total of $3.3 billion…

House E&W Bill, Disaster, Supplemental, Alternative Finance

Energy & Water Appropriations In the midst of Appropriation season, the President, in a rare move, provided Congress with a ‘revised budget’ which included funding for both the Great Lakes and the Florida Everglades under the original budget proposed by the Administration. Everglades: Trump had originally requested  $63 million – New Figure $200 million Great…

Flooding – Energy & Water, EPA, Flood Insurance

Energy & Water, Interior & EPA Appropriators are looking at raising overall budget caps to allow the increases in spending that legislators are pushing for. Both Interior-EPA and the Energy & Water bills are expected to have significant (~4%) increases from FY19 based on the House bills. Energy & Water FY19 – $44.6 FY20 –…

House Passes Supplemental $2.8 Billion for Corps of Engineers, OMB & Sand Shortage

The House has passed a supplemental bill – HR 2157: $19.1 Billion dollars – A 12% increase from $17 billion in 2018  – What will next year’s be? We can only hope for fewer wildfires and fewer hurricanes, but there is a lot Congress can do to prepare for future expenditures (which we consider inevitable)…