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By Nancy Gaarder
Blogmaster's Note: These cuts are not restricted to Nebraska and Iowa, but include Missouri and Kansas as well. There is a meeting in Council Bluffs about the proposed cuts: Thursday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Iowa National Guard Armory, 2415 E. Kanesville Blvd., Council Bluffs
The gauges are important to such things as flood forecasting, electric power generation and municipal water supplies.
But because so few barges ply the Missouri River, the gauges aren't as important to their original purpose — navigation. This is why some are at risk of being shut down.
To avoid that possibility, the two federal agencies responsible for the gauges are appealing to communities, states, utilities and others to consider setting aside money to cover any lost federal dollars.
The Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey will host a public meeting Thursday in Council Bluffs to discuss the river gauges.
“We want to lay it all on the line and say, ‘Here's what we're looking at,' so that they have more time to see if they can scrape up the funding,” said Greg Nalley, data chief for the U.S. Geological Survey in Iowa.
Nalley said the Geological Survey and Corps of Engineers have a history of working with local governments on funding for gauges. Each gauge costs about $14,900 a year to operate, he said.
That hasn't kept all gauges operating, however. Nalley said Iowa has 18 gauges along the Missouri River and its tributaries, but at one time had about 26.
Tim Temeyer of the Corps of Engineers in Omaha said the gauges are funded through a portion of the Corps budget that pays for bank stabilization and navigation on the Missouri River.
Temeyer, chief of the water control and water quality section of the Omaha corps, said the agency is proposing to set priorities by making cuts based on a program's purpose.
Because the Missouri River sees relatively few barges, proportionately more gauges would be cut along the Missouri River than along a river with significant barge travel, such as the Mississippi or Ohio.
Like Nalley, Temeyer said the goal of the Thursday meeting is to get ahead of any potential cuts.
As it stands now, no one knows what will happen with next year's federal budget, he said. However, the budget year starts in October, so it's possible that funding for gauges could be lost as early as this fall.
As currently proposed, the Missouri River program could see a 40 percent cut, said Dick Taylor, operations program manager for the corps.
The cuts would also affect gauges in the State of Missouri.
Bob Swanson, director of the Geological Survey's Nebraska Water Science Center, said the gauges are important on both sides of the river.
“As these gauges get dropped, they're very hard to replace,” he said.
Swanson said he is hopeful that others agencies will step up.
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