CWMS Accelerated Deployment Campaign

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act or ARRA) is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart the Nation’s economy, create or save millions of jobs, and address long-neglected challenges so the country can flourish in the 21st century. It is an extraordinary response to a crisis unlike any since the Great Depression. Key components of the Recovery Act include mandates to educate the public about the Act; be transparent in showing how, when and where funds from the Recovery Act are being spent; and be accountable by producing data that allows the American public to evaluate the Recovery Act’s progress and provide feedback."

The USACE's civil works program received $4.6 billion in ARRA funds and used these funds to meet the intent of the President and Congress to create jobs and to help in the recovery of the nation's economy. The goals of ARRA were to implement measures that will modernize the United States' infrastructure, invest in environmental protection, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need. USACE accomplished these goals through the development and restoration of the Nation's water and related resources.

One such project was the Hydrologic Engineering Centers’ Accelerated Corps Water Management Systems (CWMS) Deployment Campaign. With this effort, HEC, along with its contractors, built 11 CWMS implementations throughout the nation. CWMS provides the Corps’ water managers with advanced technologies so that they can better operate their reservoirs and other water control systems to better manage our nations water resources. The benefit of this ARRA project is that it provided $5 million to kick start the CWMS implementation at selected sites across the country and created or retained jobs along the way. Even though a version of CWMS has been available since 2001, few offices have had the funding available to actually implement the suite of software. This project helped to change that status.

HEC’s Project Report 79, "Accelerated Corps Water Management System (CWMS) Deployment Campaign", provides an overview of the project, how HEC managed the funding and the project, involvement of USACE Districts & Division, contractors, and the selected watersheds. The appendices provide more detail on the selected watersheds.