USACE’s navigation responsibilities are planning and constructing navigation channels, locks and dams, and dredging to maintain channel depths in U.S. harbors and inland waterways. We operate and maintain 25,000 miles of navigable channels and 196 commercial lock and dam sites and are responsible for harbors and waterways in 41 states. In partnership with local port authorities, our personnel oversee dredging and construction projects at hundreds of ports and harbors. Ten of 237 USACE locks are located in Northwestern Division — eight on the Columbia/Snake rivers, one on the Willamette River, and one at Lake Washington in Seattle. The Division also maintains 22 deep draft harbors, 20 shallow draft harbors and more than 1,700 miles of navigable waterways in the Columbia and Missouri basins.

Reducing risk and preventing flood-related damages can be accomplished by several means — through structural measures, such as reservoirs, levees, channels, and floodwalls that modify the characteristics of floods; or with non-structural measures, such as flood plain evacuation, floodproofing, and floodway acquisitions that alter the way people use these areas and reduce the susceptibility of human activities to flood risk. Northwestern Division operates 82 flood risk management projects that can store up to 115 million acre-feet of water. Over the years, the projects have helped prevent cumulative damages of nearly $84 billion within its two river basins.

Hydropower offers a significant advantage over other energy sources, hydropower is clean, efficient, reliable, and renewable and plays an increasingly important role toward meeting the Nation's energy needs. As the largest operator of hydroelectric power plants in the United States, and one of the largest in the world, USACE hydropower plants provide 100 billion kilowatt-hours annually, enough power to serve more than 10 million households. There are 75 hydropower plants installed at USACE dams and reservoirs collectively producing one-fourth of the nation's hydroelectric power. The Northwestern Division manages, operates and maintains 29 of those hydropower projects, which are located on the Columbia, Snake and Missouri rivers generating about 75% of USACE's hydropower. Electricity is supplied to three power marketing agencies whose annual sales exceed $3 billion.

Since the 1970s, USACE has been assigned an environmental program that evolved from protecting fish, wildlife and plant species to a focus on recovering their numbers to become sustainable. Through partnerships with state and federal agencies, the USACE has led efforts to expand scientific knowledge about the natural environment and evaluate how activities within a watershed may affect protected species. Structural modifications to dams and powerhouses along with changes to river system operations are used to ensure the right things are done for the environment while continuing to serve authorized purposes such as flood risk reduction, navigation and generating hydropower. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is one of the federal government’s largest providers of outdoor recreational opportunities. It operates more than 4,300 recreational sites at its lakes and projects in 43 states, logging more than 370 million visits per year. State and local park authorities and private interests operate nearly another 2,000 recreation areas at USACE projects. Hundreds of educational and volunteer programs help visitors appreciate the need for conscientious environmental stewardship of the 12 million acres under USACE's oversight.

The mission of the USACE’s regulatory permitting program is to protect the Nation's waters for current and future generations, while allowing for reasonable economic development. Regulatory efforts protect a wide variety of aquatic resources, including wetlands, rivers, streams, tidal waters, coral reefs, shellfish beds, and the oceans. Our permit process is designed to minimize environmental impacts of construction and dredging activities in U.S. waters and to ensure that such efforts are thoughtful and coordinated.