Making Benefit Estimation Useful: Lessons from Flood Control Experience

It is hereby recognized that the destructive floods upon the rivers of the United States, upsetting orderly processes and causing loss of life and property, including the erosion of lands, and impairing and obstructing of navigation, highways, railroads, and other channels of commerce between the States, constitute a menace to national welfare; that it is the sense of the Congress that flood control on navigable rivers or their tributaries is a proper activity of the Federal government in cooperation with the States, their political subdivisions, and localities thereof, that investigations and improvements of rivers and other waterways, including watersheds thereof, for flood control purposes are in the interest of the general welfare; that the Federal government should improve or participate in the improvement of navigable waters or their tributaries, including watersheds thereof, for flood control if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue are in excess of the estimated costs and if the lives and social security of the people are otherwise adversely affected. [emphasis added] (Section 1, Flood Control Act of 1936.)