[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 138 (Thursday, July 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58355-58356]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15814]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers

[COE-2021-0007]


Notice of Availability of the Draft National Levee Safety 
Guidelines

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have made available for public 
review and comment the draft National Levee Safety Guidelines 
(Guidelines). The draft Guidelines are intended to serve as a national 
resource of best practices to help achieve nationwide consistency in 
improving the reliability of levees and resilience of communities 
behind levees throughout the United States. The draft Guidelines have 
been developed with stakeholder input as part of the National Levee 
Safety Program.

DATES: Comments related to the draft National Levee Safety Guidelines 
must be submitted on or before August 31, 2024.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by docket number COE-
2021-0007 by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Visit www.regulations.gov and follow 
the instructions for submitting comments.
    Email: Send an email to [email protected] and include 
the docket number, COE-2021-0007, in the subject line of the message.
    Mail: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District, ATTN: Levee 
Safety Center--RM 221, 4155 East Clay Street, Vicksburg, MS 39183.
    Hand Delivery/Courier: Due to security requirements, we cannot 
receive comments by hand delivery or courier.
    Instructions: If submitting comments through the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal, direct your comments to docket number COE-2021-
0007. All comments received will be included in the public docket 
without change and may be made available on-line at 
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless the commenter indicates that the comment includes information 
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other 
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit 
information that you consider to be CBI, or otherwise protected, 
through regulations.gov or email. The regulations.gov website is an 
anonymous access system, which means we will not know your identity or 
contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. 
If you send an email directly to USACE without going through 
regulations.gov, your email address will be automatically captured and 
included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and 
made available on the internet. If you submit an electronic comment, we 
recommend that you include your name and other contact information in 
the body of your comment and with any compact disk you submit. If we 
cannot read your comment because of technical difficulties and cannot 
contact you for clarification, we may not be able to consider your 
comment. Electronic comments should avoid the use of any special 
characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or 
viruses.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to www.regulations.gov. All documents in the 
docket are listed. Although listed in the index, some information is 
not publicly available, such as CBI or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as 
copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be 
publicly available only in hard copy form.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Tammy Conforti at 202-365-6586, 
email [email protected] or visit www.leveesafety.org.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Congress enacted Title IX, entitled the 
National Levee Safety Program, of the Water Resources Development Act 
(WRDA) of 2007, as amended, authorizing various activities led by USACE 
and FEMA. The purpose of the National Levee Safety Program is to 
improve the way levees are managed throughout the United States and its 
territories in order to reduce the impacts of flooding and

[[Page 58356]]

improve the resilience of communities behind levees. The National Levee 
Safety Program has four major components which include: National Levee 
Safety Guidelines; Integrated Levee Management; National Levee 
Database; and Implementation Support. These four components are 
intended to work together to accomplish the goals of the program. There 
are fact sheets and additional information related to each of these 
components at www.leveesafety.org.
    As part of the development of the National Levee Safety Program, 
USACE and FEMA developed a three-phased stakeholder engagement plan to 
continue their commitment to seek feedback from stakeholders at various 
phases of the program's development. Phase 1, which took place between 
December 2021 and March 2022, was focused on gathering initial input on 
the purpose and scope of the program. Phase 2, which took place between 
March and June 2023, included activities focused on soliciting feedback 
on options for draft products, including the National Levee Safety 
Guidelines and supplemental resources. For this notice, which is 
associated with Phase 3, comments are being sought on the full draft of 
the Guidelines.
    The draft Guidelines contain voluntary best practices that are 
intended to be scalable and adaptable to local conditions. Topics in 
the draft Guidelines range from basic concepts and terminology to 
consistent approaches for levee-related activities throughout the life 
of a levee. In addition, strategies to reduce flooding impacts to 
people, property, and the environment are also covered. Finally, the 
value of addressing how climate change impacts levees, how natural and 
nature-based features can be integrated into levees, and understanding 
the needs of underserved and overburdened communities is also 
emphasized throughout the publication. The complete publication can be 
found at www.leveesafety.org/pages/nlsg or on www.regulations.gov under 
docket number COE-2021-0007. It is available by individual chapters or 
as one complete document. In preparation for release of the draft first 
edition of the National Levee Safety Guidelines, USACE hosted two 
webinars to provide an overview of the draft Guidelines and the comment 
process. The webinars were recorded and can be found at 
www.leveesafety.org/pages/nlsg.
    Questions to Assist in Providing Feedback: Commentors are 
encouraged to consider the following questions to guide their feedback 
on the draft National Levee Safety Guidelines:
    1. Did you find the document to be beneficial for you or your 
organization? Please explain your response.
    2. Is there sufficient detail on the principles and practices 
described in the draft Guidelines? If not, what additional detail 
should be included?
    3. Is there an activity that is missing? What should be explained 
more?
    4. What other suggestions do you have for improving the draft 
National Levee Safety Guidelines?
    Topic-Specific Webinars: To help with this effort, USACE has 
conducted a series of topic-specific webinars that provide background 
information on development of the draft National Levee Safety 
Guidelines, more detail on related content from applicable chapters, 
examples from various chapters that support the topic of the webinar, 
and information on how to submit feedback. Each webinar was recorded 
and posted on www.leveesafety.org/pages/nlsg.
    The topic-specific webinars include:

 Levee Operations and Maintenance
 Emergency Planning, Response, and Recovery Related to Levees
 Living with Levees: Building Resilient Communities
 Assessing, Designing, and Constructing Levees
 Environmental Considerations in Flood Risk Management

Michael L. Connor,
Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works).
[FR Doc. 2024-15814 Filed 7-17-24; 8:45 am]
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