Digging Deeper...
/Farmers in more than a dozen states were kept from their fields this year, the wettest on record, well into fall. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, most of the runoff came from tributaries without levees or dams, so there was no way to slow the surge and little time to warn farmers. “It just completely overwhelmed the levees downstream,” said Matthew Krajewski, chief of the readiness branch in the Corps’ Omaha District. Be that as it may, the lack of emphasis on flood control over the past 20-plus years and the current inadequate infrastructure must be addressed as a national priority, says Tom Waters, a seventh-generation farmer, member of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, Chairman of the Missouri Levee & Drainage District Association and a speaker at Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City events. The crisis for farmers is compounded beyond the fact that they can’t get back on their fields to plant: Without proper, approved and completed levees, farmers crop insurance premiums for 2020 plantings could triple. From an interview with Tom Waters about his testimony July 2019 before a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure by Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC, December 2019.
Missouri, Midwest Looks For Improved Flood Control
The media and insurance industries were calling last winter and spring’s floods in the Midwest an Act of God. But more sober assessors of the situation now are referring to these natural disasters – that caused more than $3 billion in damages and lost income – as acts of negligence.
“Unfortunately, flooding events like this are becoming too common,” says Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau and third generation farmer in Northwest Missouri. “We must address weaknesses in flood control structures and strengthen our ability to prevent flooding. The time has come to have a serious discussion about protecting our farms, rural communities and critical infrastructure,” he noted late last spring.
That discussion is underway, with renewed urgency and seriousness. Last May, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced two pieces of legislation to address persistent issues farmers have encountered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers related to flood control and damage mitigation. The first bill would ensure farmers are participants in any Corps decision-making that directly impacts their farms and communities. Sen. Hawley’s second bill is a companion piece to U.S. Representative Sam Graves’ House act that would make flood control the overarching and number one priority in the Corps’ Master Manual; it would remove fish and wildlife as an authorized purpose. U.S. Senator Roy Blunt is a co-sponsor.
Missouri lawmakers contend the Corps currently has eight goals in its Master Manual that are vie against with one another for attention and priority, creating confusion when it comes to managing rivers. The objectives are not prioritized, and include flood control, navigation, water supply, water quality control, irrigation and recreation, fish and wildlife.
These legislative measures introduced last spring, unfortunately, appear to be moving through Congress about as fast as last spring’s deluge of floodwaters are receding. Which is to say: Not very. Hurst commented that nothing moves in Washington; and made note of the situation that by mid-December waters in some area were only just now dipping below flood levels – nine months after the levees were breached and lands were swamped.
Mission Changed
Tom Waters says a big part of the current flooding problem is a result of a federal omnibus mandate assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers in 1973 with passage of the Endangered Species Act. The Corps’ early mission was to build a network of flood control systems on the nation’s rivers
The Endangered Species Act required the Army Corps of Engineers to make major changes to its Master Water Control Manual, which some environmental groups saw as an opportunity to take over management of the river. They pressed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get involved. “Three threatened and endangered species were identified and the power of the endangered species act would soon cause a dramatic shift in the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operated the system,” Waters says.
Writing a piece specifically about the Missouri River last spring, Waters pointed out that in 1944, Corps engineers began shaping the lower river to provide navigable waterways to move products up and down the river. Flood control structures were designed to provide 300 feet wide, nine feet deep channels. “For decades the flood control and navigation system brought great economic benefits to the Missouri River Basin,” Waters wrote. “These two primary purposes also allowed for other benefits to develop such as water supply, hydropower, irrigation, water quality control and recreation, which includes fish and wild life.”
After passage of the Endangered Species Act, however, instead of using the highly engineered system for flood control and navigation as originally designed, Waters explains, the Corps of Engineers found itself dismantling the system piece by piece through increased dike notching and conducting experiments for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Make Flood Control The Priority
Tom Waters glibly describes The Flood of 2019, as “The Flood of 1973 - 2019.” Dike notching began in 1973, he said, the first of many changes to the original river design. In 2004, congress approved changes to the Corps’ Missouri River Master Water Control Manual which in effect defrocked it of its original and primary purpose of flood control. “Instead, the Corps is forced to try to balance all the purposes of the system to the determent of its ability to provide flood protection.”
Flood control was the original purpose for building the system back in 1944, Waters points out, and flood control is even more necessary today than it was then. “The system has been modified to reduce flood control rather than improve flood control. The tipping point has been reached and people have suffered enough. The key is for Congress to make flood control the priority.”
Easier Said Than Done
Making flood control the top priority for management of the Missouri River should be easy for Congress to do, Waters believes. His argument makes sense: In the aftermath of flood after flood along the Missouri River, Congress continues to shell out millions of dollars for recovery – so wouldn’t it be wiser for Congress to spend money up front to prevent the damages in the first place? “Improving infrastructure now can reduce or eliminate the expense of recovery later.”
Waters underscores Blake Hurst’s observation that things don’t get done quickly inside the Beltway. It will take the entire Congress fix flood control. In the affected region there are only four governors, eight senators and 19 congressional representatives, he notes. “That doesn’t pull a lot of weight on Capitol Hill.” He thinks local governors need to recruit at least 20 states to back real flood control initiatives and get some real traction in Congress. “The decline of our flood control infrastructure is not limited to the Missouri River,” say Waters. “Flooding occurs nearly every day somewhere in the United States.”
Excerpts From Tom Waters’ Written Testimony Before A Hearing Of
THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
July 10, 2019
“WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT ACTS:
STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION AND ASSESSING FUTURE NEEDS”
“The 2019, Missouri River Flood is not over. High flows on the Missouri River will continue well into summer as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to release water from the mainstem reservoir system in the Upper Missouri River Basin. In addition to the mainstem system, reservoirs in Kansas and in the Missouri Osage Basins have an over abundant supply of water, which will have to be released during the same time period. These releases will combine to keep Missouri River flows above flood stage at most locations. Any additional heavy rainfall will cause additional flooding.”
“The, now infamous, “Bomb Cyclone” hitting Nebraska and South Dakota early this spring brought snow and heavy rain which overwhelmed the Missouri River flood control system. The bomb cyclone was followed by a second round of heavy snow and rain later in the spring causing even more damage throughout the Missouri River Basin. Levees have been overtopped, breached and eroded by the high-water event. Communities have been inundated, homes and businesses lost and in rural areas, farmers have lost not only their homes, but also their 2018 crops stored in flooded bins, their machinery and their livestock. Hopes for planting a crop this year have dwindled away as the river continues to scour across flooded fields.”
“Flooding in the Midwest impacts the entire country. The Missouri Department of Transportation closed more than 470 different routes in 114 counties from April 29 to June 14. Many remained closed today. Railroad tracks were washed out and train traffic was stopped and disrupted by delays and re-routing. Flooding hindered the movement of products through the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas with impacts across the entire nation. Barge traffic on the Missouri River was also disrupted.”
“Flood control must be the number one priority for the management and operation of the Missouri River Reservoir System. We have reached a tipping point and we can no longer continue to conduct failed experiment after failed experiment at the expense of people’s lives and livelihoods. Missouri and Iowa farmland was not meant to be the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s laboratory and midwestern farmers no longer want to be their guinea pigs.”
“The long list of flooding locations serves to remind us the lack of attention to flood control infrastructure over the past several years is a national problem, which impacts nearly every corner of the country. Floods do not discriminate. They do not choose democrats over republicans or vice versa. Floods don’t choose rich over poor, north over south or east over west. Flood control is not a partisan issue. It is an issue impacting the entire country and as such, the entire Congress should support prioritizing flood control infrastructure as money for infrastructure projects is appropriated.”
“In conclusion, this committee needs to remain aware of the ongoing flooding along the Missouri River. The flood is not over and the people of the Midwest and the River itself will need your leadership, guidance and support to recover from this devastating disaster.
“Flood control must be the number one priority for the operation and management of the Missouri River. Using the system for fish and bird experiments has degraded the effectiveness of the flood control system and costs our country billions of dollars.
“There is a nationwide need for improvements to the country’s flood control infrastructure. Improvements need to start here and now with this committee and with Congress. The failure to address the need for flood control infrastructure will lead to more flooding of greater magnitude and frequency.
“Without flood control transportation and commerce are interrupted, sewer and water supply are put at risk, and some of the nation’s best farmland is left out of production. Without flood control people’s lives are put at risk and yes, people die. Simply put, without flood control, nothing else matters.
The full text of Tom Waters testimony along with graphs, charts and illustrations is available here.