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WASHINGTON -- At a cost of up to $4 million a mile, the concrete and steel fence rising along the Southwest border constitutes one of the most ambitious public works projects in years, encompassing legions of federal bureaucrats and a lineup of blue-ribbon contractors. But as it slices through forbidding terrain, tribal lands, private property and sensitive wildlife habitats, the barrier faces its own towering wall of challenges, raising doubt that the projected 670 miles of pedestrian fences and vehicle barriers will be in place when the Bush administration comes to an end in January. Facing a deadline of Dec....

FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 3, 2008 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division is directing an $85 million central wastewater treatment facility for Fallujah’s estimated 200,000 residents. Workers weld a hatch beside the sludge-drying beds of the sewage treatment facility under construction in Fallujah, Iraq. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Started in May, the project is the largest in Anbar province and is 45 percent complete, officials said. The facility is projected to be sufficient for all of Fallujah’s wastewater treatment needs when the city integrates its own collection systems later and through...

BISMARCK, N.D. - The drilling frenzy in North Dakota's oil patch has now reached beneath the state's biggest lake. Oil companies have begun tapping crude oil and gas underneath Lake Sakakawea, using advanced horizontal drill techniques. Lynn Helms, the director of the state Department of Mineral Resources, said it was a logical extension to the formation known as the Middle Bakken, which lies two miles under the surface in western North Dakota and holds millions of barrels of oil. Wells aiming for the Middle Bakken are drilled vertically to about 10,000 feet, and then "kick out" for as many feet...

New Orleans (AP) -- A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over flooding from a levee breach after Hurricane Katrina. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Corps should be held immune over the failure of a wall on the 17th Street Canal that caused much of the flooding of New Orleans in August 2005. The suit led to 350,000 separate claims by businesses, government entities and residents, totaling billions of dollars in damages against the agency. The fate of many of those claims was pinned to that lawsuit...

IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA - Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park. There are 10,000 miles of these oil canals. They fed America's thirst for energy, but helped bring its biggest delta to the brink of collapse. They also connect an overlooked set of dots in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath: The role that some say the oil industry played in the $135...

BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 15, 2008 – Army engineers are conducting a public works upgrade here, repairing streets and completing unfinished sewer work. Iraqi workers use jackhammers to remove damaged pavement in preparation for pavement work in the Maqil neighborhood in Basra, Iraq. U.S. Army photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started work on a Basra pavement and sewer project in November, said Ferdinand Guese, project engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District. The new project aims to complete the paving of various streets in Maqil, a...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Officials said they have unearthed more than 400 pounds of World War II-era bombs and munitions from the grounds around Odyssey Middle School in Boynton Beach over the holiday break. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to detonate them Saturday, and warned residents they would be hearing several large blasts. Among the items found since Dec. 27 were about 50 bombs, several rockets, a rocket booster and a cannon. sponsor Part of the school grounds was used by the Army in the 1940s to train bombardiers for combat. The Army Corps announced its clean-up of the...

The Army Corps of Engineers came to the District in the late 1990s on an expensive mission: launch a massive overhaul of decrepit school buildings, which eventually included spending $80 million to replace ancient heating systems with brand-new boilers to last 25 years or more. Since then, 40 of the 55 renovated heating systems have broken down or needed major repair. Public schools officials failed to maintain the new equipment, leading to problems such as damage from mineral deposits that built up because the water was not properly treated...It would have cost just $100,000 a year to remove harmful minerals...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 20, 2007 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing a number of road improvement projects in Iraq, including a one-mile stretch on Victory Base Complex here. And while that particular project may be “inside the wire,” it is having an impact in town. Graders prepare the roadbed for asphalting. Iraqis are upgrading roads throughout Iraq, including this one on Victory Base Complex, Baghdad. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Hayder Mohammad, 26, is among those commuting from their Baghdad homes every day to help upgrade a gravel road into a paved main...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 16, 2007 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing 541 projects valued at $2 billion in a range of areas in Iraq, including renovating hospitals and schools, installing new water and sewer lines, electrical generation, new water and wastewater treatment plants, bridges and road paving. Namir El Akabi, chief executive officer of an Iraqi contracting company, said he sees progress in his home country. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In the past three years, more than 3,700 projects, valued at $5.6 billion, have been completed. Namir El Akabi, chief executive officer of...

There has been much great work done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division in Iraq,that we will never see in the old media.U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division Press releases are in pdf.What is the best,easiest way,to convert a pdf file to html,so that the hard work of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can be seen?I finally found a way today,but it is not satisfactory to me.Thanks in advance.

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects. The vote was 79-14 to pass the bill. Enactment was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party. Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic-controlled legislature, and Thursday's vote showed that even many Republicans will defy him on spending matters dear to their political careers. The bill funds...

It is beyond absurd that Atlanta may be on the verge of running out of drinking water while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to drain Atlanta's main source of water in order to keep some freaking mussels alive in the Apalachicola river basin. Read this story to see what may be in store for our city. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/10/14/waterwoes_1015.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab Solution? Governor Sonny Perdue should have the Georgia National Guard seize the dam at Lake Lanier and prevent the Corps of Engineers from releasing any more water than is absolutely necessary to meet HUMAN needs. To hell with the purple bankclimber.

TALLIL, Iraq – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers installed and handed over a compact water treatment plant to Iraqi authorities in Dhi Qar Province in Southern Iraq.The Iraqis "have signed for the facility and it's operational," said Navy Cmdr. Michael Lang, officer in charge of the Adder Area Office of USACE's Gulf Region South district.  The compact plant will supply water to residents of the village of Sulaiman and people living nearby, serving approximately 420 homes, according to Tommy Nason, a construction representative with the Adder Area Office. The project cost nearly $419,000, he said. It was paid for...

In the pantheon of dumb Army Corps of Engineers boondoggles, a $112 million flood-control scheme in Missouri's southeast bootheel ranks among the dumbest. It would drain more wetlands than all American developers drained last year, and the Corps has admitted that the town it's supposed to protect will flood just as often (once every 10 years) if and when it's completed. The Corps also admitted that its original economic rationale depended on a math error. In private e-mails, even the agency's top lobbyist described it as "an economic dud with huge environmental consequences." Now a federal judge has made it...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 4, 2007 – Four Afghan National Army cadets have finished a two-week internship program with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers here. Charley X. Qian, Afghan National Army program manager, goes over training material with Cadets Taher and Mahammad. The cadets were participating in a two-week internship program with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Photo by Master Sgt. Mark W. Rodgers, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The cadets are third-year students at the National Military Academy Afghanistan here. The academy, with more than 700 cadets, is modelled after the U.S. Military Academy at...

So, President and Mrs. Bush went down to New Orleans to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina...Here's a pop quiz: How much money has Uncle Sam spent...since Hurricane Katrina ripped the place apart? The grand total is $127 billion (including tax relief). That's right: a monstrous $127 billion. Of course, not a single media story has highlighted this gargantuan government-spending figure. But that number came straight from the White House... This is an outrage. The entire GDP of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. So the cash spent there nearly matches...

New Orleans (AP) -- A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana's attorney general can't sue the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims who don't have lawyers. The emergency order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came on the day of the deadline flood victims had to file suit — the second anniversary of Katrina. The order negates a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Charles Foti earlier Wednesday. The appeals court said that U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval acted without proper authority in appointing Foti as guardian for about 350,000 people with claims...

U.S. Army Engineers Continue Work on Health Care Centers Increased availability to medical care will help reduce infant mortality. By A. Al BahraniGulf Region South, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers MAYSAN, Iraq, Aug. 24, 2007 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to make a significant and positive impact on the reconstruction of Iraq. The design-build projects of four Primary Healthcare Centers in Maysan Province are a prime example. "We are making history here. I enjoy working in Iraq and seeing the benefit of the reconstruction work." Maj. Stephen Herda Maysan resident engineer, Basrah Area Office. “The four...

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Responds to TIME Magazine's August 13, 2007, Cover Story, 'The Threatening Storm' WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- TIME magazine's August 13, 2007, cover story, "The Threatening Storm," contains many errors and misrepresentations of facts with respect to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Katrina, and ongoing efforts to improve hurricane and storm damage reduction for southeast Louisiana. "The misrepresentation of the situation in Louisiana by TIME magazine is damaging to efforts to get essential, factual information to the people and community leaders of New Orleans," said Maj. Gen. Don T. Riley, Director of Civil...