Concerns about dredging, flood maps discussed at meeting

Missouri port operators and levee district officials brought two major concerns to the Mississippi River Commission during a public hearing Monday: how to gain help removing sand deposits during low water months and how to deal with new flood maps that question the ability of levees to deal with high water.

The sand deposits are the more immediate concern, as dry weather combines with an expected big increase in corn shipments. The flood map issue is more of a long-term problem, but a lack of help could mean a major boost in insurance costs in places where major levees provide strong protection from flooding.

The Mississippi River Commission hearing took place Monday morning at the Cape Girardeau riverfront on board the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's M/V Mississippi towboat.

The corps recently announced it will pay to dredge the ports at Caruthersville, Mo., New Madrid, Mo., and the SEMO Port at Scott City. Port managers and politicians are pushing for that work to be done quickly and for the corps to include annual funding for dredging.

"The corn harvest is maturing more rapidly than we thought," said Lloyd Smith, long-time chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, who represents Missouri's 8th District. "The peak may be on or about the Labor Day weekend."

Larry Dowdy, president of the Little River Drainage District, spoke to the Mississippi River Commission aboard the motor vessel Mississippi on Monday. (Fred Lynch)

At the SEMO Port, the 1,800-foot slack water harbor needs dredging every year, port manager Dan Overbey said. If the port paid for the work, it would cost half the port's annual budget, he said.

Other port managers said they, too, cannot afford dredging and would be crippled if the corps doesn't do the work quickly.

"The time has come for the federal government to honor its dredging commitment," said Timmie Lynn Hunter, port authority manager at New Madrid.

The commission was established in 1879 as a compromise to end battles between Army and civilian engineers. The seven-member commission includes three Corps of Engineers generals, a member from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and three civilians, two of whom are engineers. The commission is supposed to promote commerce and navigation, improve the river and prevent destructive floods. The commission oversees implementation of the 1928 Flood Control Act designed to prevent a repeat occurrence of the devastating 1927 flood.

Under the act, designed to protect 35,000 square miles and 10 million acres of farmland, the corps has supported the construction of 3,486 miles of levees along the river and its tributaries, with another 241 miles of levees to be completed. Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, president of the commission, reported that overall, the project is 92 percent complete and will be finished by 2032.

Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, president of the Mississippi River Commission, spoke aboard the motor vessel Mississippi on Monday. (Fred Lynch)

Crear is the commander of the corps's Mississippi River Division.

The commission's hearing in Cape Girardeau was the second of five to be held in river towns in coming days. The commission will be in Memphis, Tenn., today, Greenville, Miss., on Wednesday and at Morgan City, La., on Friday.

The other main issue generating complaints Monday -- how to deal with flood hazard maps being issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- is a trickier problem. Those maps will include a notation that levees are not 100 percent reliable in a flood, many people at the hearing said.

Larry Dowdy, representing the Little River Drainage District, said the new flood hazard maps don't recognize that the levees in place offer protection from even the biggest floods. "We need to stop this train," he said. "We need to get something done."

Dowdy questioned whether FEMA wasn't designating the areas behind levees as prone to flooding to fatten up the coffers of the National Flood Insurance Program. "What a bonanza it will be to write flood insurance policies and know it will never have to pay a claim," he said.

The maps are being misunderstood, said Melissa Janssen, spokeswoman for FEMA in Kansas City. The agency will issue new, preliminary maps in coming months for Scott, Butler and Ste. Genevieve counties, she said, and they will contain the notation about levees.

But if the corps certifies that the levees are at the designed strength and have been properly maintained, the final maps will also show that property protected by the levees is not prone to flooding. And, she said, the agency does not benefit from insurance premiums.

"Flood insurance premiums go into a pot to pay claims," she said. "FEMA does not make money on these policies."

The levees put in place under the guidelines of the 1928 Flood Control Act are designed to withstand extreme high water, Crear said. In the corps' language, the levees can hold back a 500-year flood, or one that there is a one in 500 chance of occurring in a given year.

"No levee is 100 percent effective," Crear said. "But no Mississippi River and Tributaries Project levee has ever failed."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126