It all started with a simple question: How can the Norfolk District best deliver enduring and essential water resource solutions through collaboration with partners and stakeholders?
That particular question was posed by none other than the U.S. Army’s Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Gen. Robert L. "Van" Van Antwerp, when he introduced the Corps’ Campaign Plan.
For the uninitiated, the USACE Campaign Plan is the organization’s guiding document -– a roadmap for establishing our priorities, focusing our transformation initiatives, measuring and guiding our progress, and adapting to the needs of the future.
Under the second goal of that plan, Corps employees are charged with delivering enduring and essential water resource solutions through collaboration with partners and stakeholders –- and that’s precisely what prompted the question.
In truth, most of my senior managers believe the district has a long, successful history of achieving that goal and I agree with them; however, we all agree that there’s room for improving our organizational synergy and collaboration, and establishing a holistic watershed approach.
Let me explain.
The Corps began its water resources program in 1824, when Congress first appropriated money for improving river navigation. This act laid the foundation for the growth of perhaps the largest water resources development agency in the world. Since then, the Corps has been involved in navigation, flood risk management, dam and levee operations and maintenance, hurricane response, coastal protection, supporting inland and port navigation, environmental protection, aquatic ecosystem restoration, water supply and recreation.
Yet, for the long history of accomplishment in these areas, there’s been no single champion for water resources issues within the Norfolk District. Instead, these efforts were traditionally spread amongst two divisions and three branches: the Planning and Policy Branch, the Regulatory Branch and the Operations Branch.
That all changes this spring, when the Norfolk District brings those three branches together under a newly formed Water Resources Division.
On the surface, this may seem like a simple organizational realignment, but the reality is that we’re creating an entirely new community of practice of scientists, engineers, program managers and technical experts focused on water resource management issues.
This group, headed by a senior federal civilian employee on my executive staff, will focus its energies on collaborative, holistic management of the James, Rappahannock, York and Chowan River basins, and the small coastal basins for which Norfolk District is responsible –- a move that affects roughly 60 percent of Virginia’s geography and about 49 percent of its population!
I am excited by this change and look forward to hearing suggestions from our customers, partners and stakeholders on how this new division can better meet their needs.
Building Strong!
COL Andy Backus
USACE Campaign Plan
http://www.usace.army.mil/about/campaignplan/Pages/Home.aspx
