Prairie Rivers Network and Partners Press Obama Administration for Better Water Resource Planning
- U.S. Army Engineers open the Morganza Spillway , Morganza, MS, to relieve pressure on the flood waters of the Mississippi River, on Saturday, May 15, 2011. Source: flickr/US Army Corp of Engineers Photo.
The 2011 floods and their aftermath will be a fact of life for many in the months and years to come. At this time, residents along the Missouri River are building additional levees or adding height to current levees in the hopes of avoiding floods from record high river levels. Floodgates of the Morganza and Bonne Carre spillways on the Mississippi River remain open almost a month after they were raised to lessen downstream flooding. In the last week, the Corps’ estimates of the cost to rebuild levees damaged by the Mississippi floods has increased from $1 to $2 billion dollars, and will certainly increase as more damage information becomes available. Clearly, it is past time for rethinking how we manage and live with the Big River.
Rethinking needs to begin with the White House and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In a letter to President Obama, sent June 21, 2011, Prairie Rivers Network and 44 other organizations are urging the Administration to revise the current federal water resources planning principles and guidelines (P & G) to ensure federal funds used for water resource management and project planning “protect and restore the natural flood fighting defenses of the nation’s river and wetlands.”
The planning and guidance rules establish principles for prioritizing how federal funds are spent. Prairie Rivers Network wants to ensure that spending decisions are based on giving full value to protections provided by rivers’ natural functions.
We are specifically requesting the revised principles and guidelines require that:
- federal water resources projects for the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers protect and restore floodplains and wetlands;
- federal project and management planners avoid and minimize adverse environmental impacts and incorporate non-structural, restoration-based measures; and
- federal investments in ecosystem restoration also work to protect and enhance ecosystem functions and processes.
First issued in 1973, the principles and guidelines have not been revised since 1983. The current revision process provides a significant opportunity for the Obama Administration to ensure future decisions impacting the fate of our water resources will be sensible, holistic, and forward-looking. Unfortunately, proposed revisions released in 2009 fell far short of providing guidance which would increase and maintain the health of rivers, wetlands and their related habitats. For example, while including modern water management concepts such as “adaptive management” and “ecosystem health,” these are not clearly defined or used consistently within the draft revisions. The Council of Environmental Quality’s review of the proposed revisions is available online.
The Obama Administration cannot keep the current federal decision framework for managing the Mississippi and Misourri rivers in place. People who live in river communities need assurance that future decisions regarding flood protection measures are based on smart, environmentally sensitive planning. Prairie Rivers Network will continue to monitor federal-level response to this year’s flooding and press for sensible flood management policy that will keep people safe and protect the Mississippi River and its diverse ecosystems.
