Missouri River Levees Discussed

by Marshall White
Originally published February 27, 2011 
in the St. Joseph News-Press
Original Link: http://www.newspressnow.com/localnews/27019222/detail.html

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Spring is three weeks away, but it’s not too early to start worrying about flooding on the Missouri River.

Recent warm weather caused a spate of draining from the plains snow pack and moved river ice out of the system.

That was a good thing, said Jody Farhat, the Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River water management chief.

“Essentially, full flood storage capacity is available,” she told members of the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association.

State officials and area farmers have their doubts.

Missouri has requested that navigation season open early in part because there is a high likelihood of floods, said Sara Pauley, Missouri Department of Natural Resources director.

Last year’s flooding left many levees in poor condition, and the National Weather Service is predicting a wet spring.

The result could be more flooding, said Mike Wells, a Missouri River specialist with DNR.

The Corps of Engineers planned two spring pulses this year to increase Missouri River flow.

“I’m betting we won’t do the March pulse,” Mrs. Farhat, the official with her hand on the spigot, said.

The Corps of Engineers increases the water flow to assist the pallid sturgeon, but a recent study shows that the fish doesn’t need a pulse, Ms. Pauley said.

“Science now knows that the sturgeon’s spawning cues are increased daylight and water temperature, not a river pulse,” she said.

A spring rise could bring high water that would affect bottomland drainage.

If the Missouri River runs above 13 feet, it creates drainage problems for the Halls and Rushville/Sugar Lake levees, said Lanny Frakes, vice president of the association and a local farmer.

Water that isn’t pumped off the land means drowned crops, Mr. Frakes said. The option of pumping becomes more costly with rising fuel costs, he said.

But high fuel costs could be a plus for the river.

That will make people rethink their logistics and could turn the Missouri River back into a marine highway, said Ernie Perry, DNR’s freight development administrator.

Making St. Joseph’s port a success is something Ron Blakley, a member of the local port authority’s board of directors and an area farmer, would like to see.

However, the condition of levees in St. Joseph remains a concern.

The 1993 flood breached the Elwood-Gladden levees and there’s no money in the 2012 fiscal budget to fix the St. Joseph-area levees.

“As a community, we can’t afford to see that time bomb explode because it could mean the loss of the Air National Guard,“ Mr. Blakely said.

The Corps did have some good levee news.

Contracts have been signed to repair the two non-federal Holt County levees that breached in 2010.