Recently, the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the organization charged with overseeing the management of the reach of the Missouri River through southeast South Dakota, western Iowa, and eastern Nebraska, announced that it has begun repairing the Missouri River navigation channel between Sioux City, Iowa, and Rulo, Nebraska, a distance of 116 river miles. During last year’s historic flood, the Missouri’s powerful currents destroyed the Army’s wingdams and revetments in dozens of locations south of Sioux City. For example, near Tekamah, Nebraska, the Missouri blew out its riprapped banks, outflanked a series of wingdams, and cut deep side channels through soft, sugary alluvium. At Decatur, Nebraska, the Mighty Missouri almost toppled over the Decatur Bridge after it burrowed a 50-foot deep hole into the bridge’s east abutment. Continue Reading »
It’s Time to De-Authorize the Missouri River Navigation Channel
It has been almost seven months since the end of the Great Flood of 2011. In the intervening months, it has become clear that the Army Corps must change how it manages the Missouri River. Missouri Valley residents cannot go back to “business as usual” along the Mighty Mo. To do so invites disaster. But what must change?
Lower valley farmers, represented by the Farm Bureau Federation, the Corn Grower’s Association, and the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association want the rapid reconstruction of old, misaligned levees, as well as the flood-prone navigation channel. Those two antiquated hydraulic systems worsened flooding last year and will contribute to flooding in the years ahead. But the members of those three organizations want to be able to raise corn and soybeans (which are now fetching record prices) on every conceivable acre in the lower valley, so they are aggressively promoting a policy that substantially increases the probability of another major flood. Unfortunately, the farm lobby is gambling with the safety of the lower valley in order to maximize farm income. Continue Reading »
Madmen Are Now Managing The Missouri
On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed into a law an emergency appropriation for the Missouri Basin. On the face it, the multi-million-dollar appropriation appeared to be a godsend for residents of the Missouri Valley, because it allows the Corps to rebuild its damaged Missouri River hydraulic system of dams, levees, and navigational structures. For example, in the coming year, the Army plans on spending $51.9 million to repair Garrison Dam and another $10.5 million on the rehabilitation of Gavin’s Point Dam. Fixing the big dams is a proper expenditure of federal funds. If the dams remained in a state of disrepair, they would be far more likely to fail during the next flood. But the expenditure of untold millions on the lower valley’s defunct navigation channel and improperly aligned levee system represents an abject waste of federal dollars. Continue Reading »
Along The Missouri – We Are Not Out Of The Woods Yet
It’s been almost six months since the end of the Missouri River flood. Since then, the upstream reservoirs have been drained of their floodwaters, the lower Missouri Valley has dried out, and the Corps has commenced the reconstruction of damaged dams, levees, and channelization structures. To add to the apparent good news, officials recently stated that the lack of snow in the mountains and dry conditions across the prairie-plains region have dramatically reduced the probability of flooding along the Missouri main-stem in 2012. All appears well along the Missouri. The worst is behind us – or so it seems. But before we engage in a collective sigh of relief, we should recognize that big, big problems still confront the residents of the Missouri basin. Continue Reading »
More Corn or Fewer Floods? We Have A Choice To Make
Neither God, nor freak rain events, or the tiny piping plover caused the Missouri River flood of 2011. Rather, humans, and their ignorance, greed, and hubris, brought the floodwaters down upon this area.
The Army Corps deserves much of the blame for the flood. The Army kept the Montana and Dakota reservoirs high when the impoundments should have been low. Consequently, the reservoirs did not have enough storage space to capture the descending super flood. To prevent the dams from being overtopped and washed away, the Army released unprecedented amounts of water from Gavin’s Point Dam. Continue Reading »
