Midwest lawmakers Thursday introduced legislation to overhaul the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? process for managing water resource projects along the lower Missouri River system. Senators from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska introduced the bill to establish a new program that would require the Corps of Engineers to implement a system-wide approach to water development projects to reduce flood risk and improve flood protection along the lower Missouri River.
Iowa Republican Joni Ernst says, that, ?As evidenced by the recurring flooding in the lower basin, the current approach is not working.? Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt says the bill gives the Corps of Engineers the ?ability to develop a comprehensive system plan to design and build critical flood control projects that will do a better job of protecting people and property.?
The lawmakers say the proposal provides greater efficiencies and streamlining with regard to how the Corps plans for and manages Missouri River water resource development projects from inception to completion.
Forecasters expect another above-average runoff year along the Missouri River. Current conditions, including soil moisture, plains and mountain snowpack, as well as long-term temperature and precipitation outlooks forecast runoff to be 36.9 million acre-feet, 143 percent of average, for the upper Missouri River basin above Sioux City, Iowa for 2020. The average annual runoff for the upper basin is 25.8 million-acre feet.
Gavin?s Point releases were decreased from 38,000 cubic feet per second to 35,000 this week as tributaries downstream of Gavin?s Point began to rise due to the melting of the plains snowpack in South Dakota. The potential for above-average runoff in the upper basin, coupled with continued high river stages on many of the uncontrolled tributaries downstream of the reservoir system, increases the potential for flooding, particularly in the lower river. Many farmers along the Missouri River are still recovering from flooding in 2019 that started in March of last year.
