Army Corps of Engineers: Determinations That Projects Do Not Need Environmental Mitigation Should Be Clarified

Filed 1h ago · Via GAO · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Kings of Tara

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Ulumarifah · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

GAO reviewed 74 Civil Works projects submitted to Congress for authorization between 2020 and 2025 and found the Corps determined mitigation plans were needed for just 22 of them, while 52 were waved through without one. For those 52, the reports to Congress generally did not clearly document why mitigation was deemed unnecessary.

GAO recommends the Corps develop guidance for documenting those determinations. The Army's civil works office declined to agree, saying its existing reports already contain sufficient technical information; GAO says the recommendation stands.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Telling Congress 'trust us, it's fine' isn't the same as showing your work, and the Corps picked the first option on seventy percent of its projects. When the auditor says show the paperwork and the agency says the paperwork we didn't show is already good enough, that's not a rebuttal, that's just repeating the original problem with more confidence.

Source: Read the original at GAO → Scored: Kings of Tara · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0