Congressman Graves calls for changes in Corps management of Missouri in midst of historic flooding

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Gavins Point Dam/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo

Congressman Sam Graves wants to see a change in how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the Missouri River.

Graves says the Corps has placed too much emphasis on recreation and habitat reclamation and too little on flood control. Still, Graves doesn’t entirely place the blame for this year’s flooding on the Corps.

“How much can we blame the Corps?” Graves asks. “I think the Corps has some issues, again, with management of the river. I think they are partially to blame for this. It was also the fact that we had some heavy rain and we had a lot of snowmelt that happened very, very quickly. There’s plenty of blame to go around, whether that’s Mother Nature or the Corps.”

Graves says the Corps needs to return to the original intent when the six dams upstream of the Missouri River were built: flood control and enhanced navigation.

The Corps manages the Missouri River through water releases from six upstream dams. As an abnormal amount of water entered the system from early snowmelt and rains in Nebraska, the Corps increased releases from Gavins Point Dam, the farthest dam downstream. At one time, the Corps was releasing 90,000 cubic feet per second from Gavins Point even as downstream farms and communities fought losing battles to contain floodwaters.

Flooding did total or partial damage to 52 levees along 350 miles of the Missouri River basin in Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, according to the Corps. That damage has left downstream communities vulnerable to any further flooding this spring.

Graves accuses the Corps of favoring recreation at the upstream reservoirs and habitat reclamation downstream over flood control. Graves points out the Corps has already lost a lawsuit which blamed its management for five floods between 2007 and 2014 that caused $300 million in damage. He says this year’s flooding adds to the notion that something needs to change.

“I think it’s going to have an impact and it’s already starting to have an impact, whether it be that lawsuit or the fact that we had a major flood in 2011 and now this flood in 2019,” according to Graves. “I think the Corps is rethinking, but you have to remember too that all of these districts are very autonomous.”

Graves says he has talked to both officials in the Omaha and the Kansas City offices.

Graves says he has seen some change by the Corps.

“They’re going to have to change the management. I think they are changing the management, not as quickly or as much as I would like to see and that’s something we’re going to have to continue to work on.”