August/September 2014

PE REPORT
Levee Certification Program Puts PEs at Risk, Society Says

In July, NSPE urged to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Army Corps of Engineers to consider changes to FEMA’s levee certification program.

“NSPE commends FEMA for recognizing the crucially significant role of the professional engineer in evaluating a levee for certification,” NSPE President Harve Hnatiuk, P.E., F.NSPE writes in a letter to FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate and Army Corps of Engineers Chief Engineer Lt. General Thomas Bostick, P.E. “It is, however, our belief that the FEMA levee certification program places an unreasonable burden on PEs, exposing them to great risk.”

Recent natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina prompted FEMA to require PE certification of all levees to be eligible for FEMA accreditation. The program currently requires professional engineers to assume much of the legal risk associated with that accreditation.

“Under the FEMA program, a PE is in many instances being asked to certify levees without the protection of professional liability insurance or other liability protections,” Hnatiuk writes. “Many qualified PEs have been advised by their professional liability insurance carriers that they will lose professional liability insurance coverage or have their premiums substantially increased if their practice includes levee certification under the current FEMA program. As a result, many qualified PEs no longer offer services under the FEMA program because it would leave them and their firms vulnerable to potential lawsuits and related costs.”

As NSPE’s position statement on FEMA levee certification, approved in April, points out, the program could actually endanger the public instead of protect it. Because of the elimination of many qualified PEs from the pool of engineers available for selection because of liability concerns, those willing to perform the services under the FEMA program may not be the most qualified to do the work.

Citing the position statement, Hnatiuk asks in his letter that FEMA revise the certification requirements to shift responsibility and liability to parties in a better position to assume responsibility and liability—levee boards, owners, and operators.