North Central Division Office

[acangelo@nemw.org]

Congressional Update - North Central Division, Army Corps of Engineers - Basin 
Perspective Preserved in New Restructuring Plan

	The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act of FY 1997 (PL 
104-206) requires that the Secretary of the Army develop a plan to reduce the 
number of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divisions to no less than six and no more 
than eight, with each division responsible for at least 4 districts.  Numerous 
plans have been submitted and rejected over the last year, all of which called 
for closure of the North Central Division office which has jurisdiction over the 
Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River. 
 
	The Secretary of the Army has just approved a new restructuring plan.  
Under the provisions of this plan, the Great Lakes districts of the NCD still 
will be combined with the districts of the Ohio River Division to form a ‘Great 
Lakes and Ohio River Division.'  However, division headquarter offices will 
remain in both Chicago and Cincinnati, each with a regional deputy comander and 
SES.  Communcations indicate that no reduction-in-force is expected for Great 
Lakes division personnel.  The Great Lakes and Ohio River Division will contain 
the districts of Chicago,  Detroit, Buffalo, Louisville, Huntington, Pittsburgh 
and Nashville.   The Mississippi River districts of St. Paul and Rock Island 
(formerly under NCD jurisdiction) will be transferred to the Lower Mississippi 
Valley Division (renamed Mississippi Valley Division).

	An office which can provide a basin perspective for Corps programs is 
extremely important in interagency interactions.  It is especially important in 
light of the authorization of several environmental provisions directed at the 
Great Lakes in the most recent Water Resources Development Act. Thanks are due 
to the Great Lakes Task Force members, and the Great Lakes Commission, which 
wrote letters to the Army Corps in strong support of Great Lakes programs at the 
Division Office in Chicago.

	For more information please contact Rochelle Sturtevant (202-225-5731) 
or Patricia Cicero (202)-224-0388.