After ruling against St. John's Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project, corps looking at options to stop area flooding

SIKESTON, Mo. — The St. John's Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project may not be dead after all.

Danny Ward, the project's manager, said that while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reversing work on the project as ordered, they will look for other ways to protect the area from flooding.

Work on the long-awaited project, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect the St. John's Bayou and New Madrid floodway areas from periodic backwater flooding from the Mississippi River and to reduce headwater flooding around East Prairie, Mo., began in the fall of 2006.

The project was working to close the gap between the setback and front line levees in the New Madrid floodway and install a pumping station there.

In September 2007, a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the corps to halt work and restore the area to how it was before they started.

Last summer, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, which acts as the corps' legal representation, decided against appealing that decision after consultation with the corps.

The corps began working to reverse $7.2 million in work that had already taken place — primarily earthwork that included building a diversion channel and cofferdams for a dewatering system.

Delayed by spring flooding, plans and specifications for restoring the area were finished sometime in January, Ward said.

"We are on to track to complete the earthwork to reverse the construction in December," Ward said. "That is dependent on Mississippi River stages."

Except for some wells that were capped off, the dewatering system was removed shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice decision, according to Jim Pogue, public affairs specialist for the corps.

As of August, the corps had reportedly spent about $80,000 on site restoration. Ward said he is unable to provide an accurate figure for the projected cost of the ongoing restoration.

"We are in the process of refining that cost," he said.

In August, the corps' position was that it still believed in the project but was following the direction of the court and taking steps to comply with the court's order, Pogue said at the time.

"We are going to comply with the court order, but at the same time we are also going to address potential solutions to flooding in the area," Ward said. "What we are going to do is conduct another study."

Ward said such a study would include the previous recommendation to close the gap and install a pumping station but added that this plan may not necessarily remain the corps' recommended solution. Ward said he doesn't know what alternatives may be possible.