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 »
The Corps’ Intransigence and the Reasons for It
On Thursday, November 3, 2011, members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with the public in Sioux City, Iowa, to discuss the flood of 2011 and the management of the Missouri River in the months ahead. The public finally had a chance to vent its anger at the object of its long-held scorn – and vent it did. When the clean-cut, straight-laced Brigadier General John McMahon took the podium and told the surly crowd that he continued to have full confidence in the skills and abilities of his Missouri River reservoir operations staff – the same staff that determined the reservoir release schedule this past spring with such disastrous results – the audience erupted in a cacophony of catcalls and boos. But the general, who appeared in front of the throngs in his battle dress uniform, stared back at the seething mass of humanity and repeated the statement a second time – to more boos and sighs. Continue Reading »
The Great Missouri River Flood: Ten Questions for the Upcoming Investigation
On August 19, 2011, seven GOP governors (or their representatives) from the Missouri basin met in Omaha, Nebraska, with officials from the Army to discuss this year’s flood along the Mighty Mo. Because the governors closed the meeting to the public, we do not know what the Army told the governors or what if anything the Army and the politicians decided about the future management of the river. During a joint press conference following the meeting, the governors stated that flood control must be the Army’s top priority along the Missouri in the years ahead. It is indisputable that flood control should be of paramount importance in the operation of the Missouri River reservoirs. No one in his/her right mind would argue that storage of water in the Dakota and Montana reservoirs for the lower river’s navigation channel should trump the need to create space in the reservoirs for an approaching super flood or that the reservoirs should be kept dangerously high in the spring so that Dakota sport fishers can catch a few more walleye during the summer. Continue Reading »
The Missouri Valley Flood 2011: Let the Blame Games Begin
On June 9, 2011, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) stated that Congress may need to hold investigative hearings on the causes of the present flood along the Missouri River. He remarked, “It never hurts to take an in-depth look at why we’re in the situation we’re at on the Missouri River.” With the possibility of such a high-profile investigation looming, and the 2012 presidential and congressional election campaigns already heating up, politicians and their affiliated parties are going to seek political advantage by blaming the disaster on their opponents and their allies. It’s all so very American and so very disturbing.
Taking the lead in the blame game, Nebraska GOP senate candidate Don Stenberg remarked yesterday that any investigation of the flood needs to look at the Obama Administration’s role in possibly exacerbating the situation. More specifically, Stenberg wants to know whether Obama’s people ordered the Army to keep the reservoirs high, thus reducing the reservoirs’ ability to stem the high flows coming down from Montana. Stenberg’s implication that Obama may be to blame for the disaster is a crude and deceitful attempt to ingratiate himself with Nebraska’s overwhelmingly GOP, rural electorate. Governor Terry Branstad (R-IA) sought to preempt any potential criticism of his own history with the river and the Army by claiming that he has been critical of the Corps’ work along the river for years. He noted, “I have felt for a long time that the downstream states have not been protected in the flood-mitigation work of the Corps of Engineers.” Branstad wants Iowa residents to know that he is now on the side of the victims in this flood. Interestingly, Branstad made no mention of the need to investigate the part played by the navigation channel in worsening the flooding below Ponca, Nebraska, where the wingdams and revetments begin to narrow the river. Continue Reading »
