Nixon Asks Corps for Help to Protect Missouri River September 26, 2013

Gov. Jay Nixon is urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop work on a Missouri River project that’s designed to help an endangered fish species.

In a letter to Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy, Nixon said the corps needs to obtain independent findings that shallow-water habit projects will help the pallid sturgeon and won’t cause harm. Until that happens, Nixon said last week, the corps should discontinue work at Jameson Island near the village of Arrow Rock and not begin work on similar projects.

The corps only recently awarded a $3.5 million contract for the Jameson Island project after a six-year holdup. Concerns and delays stem from the corps’ plans to put much of the dirt excavated to create the new habitat into the river. The corps and environmental groups say researchers have determined the soil dumping won’t cause trouble and note the pallid sturgeon evolved to live in large, silt-filled rivers.

But farm groups fear that putting the fertilizer-laden soil into the river would contribute to a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts blame the low-oxygen, or hypoxic, conditions primarily on farm fertilizer runoff brought by the Mississippi River, into which the Missouri River empties. The nutrients cause oxygen-depleting algae blooms.

In August, one month after the corps awarded a contract, the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association and eight other groups asked Nixon to oppose the project. The letter to Nixon noted that the issue is important because “policies enacted for the Jameson Island chute will set a precedent for future projects in Missouri.”

The Jameson Island project is part of the corps’ effort to recreate about 20 percent of the approximately 100,000 acres of shallow-water habitat that disappeared when the river was dammed and straightened and its channel narrowed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the corps to undertake the habitat effort because, while changes to the river aided navigation and improved flood protection, the pallid sturgeon population has dwindled

Last Contract for 2011 Flooding Repairs is Out, Critics Say It’s Taking Too Long February 4, 2013

(AP) – More than $180 million of repairs to Missouri River levees battered by the historic 2011 flooding are beginning to wind down, but critics are complaining the work took too long.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded its final levee repair contract, worth $31,000, and a contractor has started work on the Overton-Wooldridge Levee District No. 1 in central Missouri’s Cooper and Moniteau counties. Officials anticipate that repairs to it and other levees along the 2,341-mile river will wrap up this spring.

Missouri River levees sustained heavy damage in the summer of 2011 after the corps began releasing massive amounts of water from upstream reservoirs that had been filled with melting snow and heavy rains. The onslaught lasted for more than 100 days, flooding farmland in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

“The corps has worked in the past to shorten the lengthy levee repair process, but it still takes far too long,” Tom Waters, chairman of the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association, said in an email. “The Corps of Engineers’ levee repair process is a very long affair with too many steps, and too many delays.”

Those steps include environmental and engineering studies. Diana McCoy, a corps spokeswoman, said the agency is constantly reviewing the process for making repairs and currently rewriting the regulation that govern them.

Blunt May Press for Missouri & Mississippi River “Economic Emergency” November 28, 2012

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt says he is considering asking the White house for an “economic emergency declaration”, to block the Army Corps of Engineers from reducing water levels along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
“We need the water,” Blunt told reporters in a Tuesday teleconference call.
The Corp wants to drop levels along Missouri’s two major rivers to store more water in the northern basin of the Missouri River for Great Plains states.
Lower Missouri shipping interests and those on the Mississippi claim their ability to ship good up the rivers for the next farming season is in jeopardy because barges can navigate the rivers.
Blunt’s office says such a declaration could block the Corp’s water reduction plans.
The dispute over the river levels may be re-igniting the long simmering feud between upper and lower Missouri River interests..
During the 2011 Missouri River flood, Senators, Congressmen and Governors from the entire Missouri River basin pledged to cooperate in the future on river issues, instead of arguing.
Blunt says it is within the Corps’ authority to resolve the issue on its own.
Blunt also says his office is not receiving many letters or e-mails about the ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis.
He says he thinks that because Missourians are not sure what the solution should be.
Blunt says it is up to the President to lead on the issue. He is critical of the President for not forging a deal. Blunt said the President prefers to go around the country giving speeches
Blunt also says his office is not receiving many letters or e-mails about the ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis.
He says he thinks that because Missourians are not sure what the solution should be.
Blunt says it is up to the President to lead on the issue. He was critical of the president for not forging a deal. Blunt said the president prefers to go around the country giving speeches about that leading on the issue.

Nixon Urges Army Corps to keep Water Flowing on Missouri River November 13, 2012

AP:
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and the barge industry are imploring the federal government to keep water flowing on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers or face “economic disaster.”
The drought has left many waterways at historic lows. Nixon sent a letter Friday urging the Army Corps of Engineers to rethink plans to reduce the amount of water released from Missouri’s upstream reservoir. That also would reduce flow on the Mississippi below St. Louis.
Nixon said the move could create an “economic disaster.” Meanwhile, the American Waterways Operators and Waterways Council last week urged Congress and President Barack Obama to act to keep the water flowing.
The corps said last week that the reduction is the first of several conservation measures necessary if drought conditions continue into 2013.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/12/3913900/missouri-governor-barge-industry.html#storylink=cpy

Corps to Restore Bird’s Point Levee July 25, 2012

Bird’s Point levee blown by Corps of Engineers in spring 2011. Photo: Southeast Missourian

Missouri News Horizon:
In what some are calling a victory for southeast Missouri, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it intends to completely rebuild the Bird’s Point Levee they destroyed during flooding last year.
The Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday the levee will be rebuilt exactly where it was before it was demolished.
“We’re very anxious and excited that we’ve got that green light,” said Jim Pogue, a spokesman for the Corps. we’ll be working hard as we can to get that levee restored fully by the end of the calendar year.”
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt was one of many in the Missouri congressional delegation that was critical when the Corp indicated the project may stop rebuilding at the 55 foot level.
In a statement Tuesday, Blunt said since the Corps decided to implode the levee, it was also their responsibility to rebuild it.
“The Corps’ announcement today is great news for Southeast Missourians, and I am so pleased they finally heeded my calls to fully restore the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway this year,” he said. “Families, farmers, and small businesses in the Bootheel can finally return to their daily lives and rebuild what was lost.
The low water level and lack of rain is allowing the corps to rebuild the entire structure.