Audubon South Carolina praises U.S. House passage of major bipartisan water infrastructure bill

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In response to the passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, Audubon South Carolina Policy Director Julia Dietz issued the following statement:

“Audubon South Carolina applauds members of the House passing the Water Resources Development Act of 2020, and hopes that members of the Senate, including S.C. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, act quickly to pass this important legislation.

The 2020 version of this biennial water bill includes numerous provisions that will help restore the nation’s most important ecosystems and protect vital bird and wildlife habitat, including those that:

• Increase and improve the use of dredged materials for ecosystem restoration projects and projects that use nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk by ensuring environmental and social benefits are calculated into project cost assessments;
• Reduce barriers to access to federal cost sharing programs and increase access to flood risk reduction planning by waiving the non-federal study cost share for feasibility studies for socially vulnerable communities;
• Require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider the effects of sea-level rise and inland flooding in the development of federal projects, while providing the Corps with new authority to design and construct projects that use natural infrastructure to address repetitive flood losses; and, among others,
• Require the Corps to consider nature-based approaches to enhance flood and storm resilience in its feasibility studies, helping ensure that Corps-funded projects provide the most sustainable and least costly protections for communities while improving public safety.

Audubon applauds the bill’s focus on nature-based infrastructure projects to help mitigate the impacts of sea-level rise and protect vulnerable communities and habitat along South Carolina’s coast.

Audubon South Carolina praises U.S. House passage of major bipartisan water infrastructure bill