Corps approves plan for closing levee gap

~ The latest version of the plan is the response to a lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C.

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week approved its latest plan for closing the levee gap at New Madrid with floodgates, a step that could generate more legal wrangling than construction activity.

The $85 million project, a source of constant battles between environmental groups, the corps and area landowners, would prevent the Mississippi River from spilling onto land near New Madrid.

Levees protect river bottomlands from flooding along the entire length of the Mississippi south of its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., except at New Madrid. The 1,500-foot gap in the levee is the outlet for water diverted into the New Madrid Floodway during major inundations along the river.

The northern end of the floodway is a levee near Birds Point, lower than surrounding levees, that can be deliberately ruptured in event of an emergency. The floodway has been used once, in 1937.

The proposal to close the southern end of the floodway includes provisions for large box culverts with floodgates that can be closed when necessary to prevent the Mississippi River from backing up onto the land. Pumps would provide water to Big Oak Tree State Park, land would be purchased to make up for the loss of other ecologically important features and, for six weeks in the spring, water would be allowed to flow onto the land to provide spawning grounds for fish.

Praise and criticism

And while the action this week brought praise from Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, it drew criticism from environmentalists.

The latest version of the levee plan is the corps' response to a federal lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., challenging the entire proposal.

"The plan contains unprecedented mitigation features that will preserve and enhance our bottomland hardwood forest, a natural resource of which we are very proud, and at the same time protect homes, livelihoods, property and lives threatened by Mississippi River flooding," Emerson said in a prepared statement.

The comment that the flooding, which is a regular occurrence in the area to be protected, is truly a threat is questionable, said Ted Heisel, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

"This project is primarily about growing corn and soybeans on the land at the lower end of the floodway," he said. "It makes it look like a giveaway to a few landowners."

The floodway was established after flooding in 1927 devastated the Mississippi valley. Water stood in downtown Cape Girardeau, 10 distinct flood crests passed Cairo, and in some places the river was above flood stage for 153 consecutive days, according to the book "Rising Tide," by John M. Barry. A federal levee at Dorena, Mo., failed, flooding 175,000 acres.

The floodway was devised as a way to take pressure off main river levees. It is 5 miles wide and designed to carry up to 550,000 cubic feet of water per second. On Friday, the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau carried approximately 230,000 cubic feet per second.

Water will still be allowed to flow through the floodway during a catastrophic flood, said Larry Sharp, project manager for the corps' Memphis office. "It is the lesser floods that come much more frequently that cause a lot of recurring damage on a year-to-year basis that this will be greatly reducing," he said.

Sharp said corps officials hope the latest step, which was the approval of the Revised Environmental Impact Statement, wins approval from its foes in the lawsuit.

The decision to revise the plan was made last August, just as a federal judge was set to hear oral arguments. If the lawsuit is not renewed, Sharp said, the corps will tell its contractor to begin work in August.

The environmental groups' "bottom line is that they don't want anything," Sharp said.

But in an effort to compromise, the corps revised its proposal relating to allowing time for fish to spawn and for reforesting some cropland along the river.

Heisel acknowledged that there are homes and small communities in the area that must deal with regular flooding. But much less expensive means could be found to protect property in East Prairie and the Pinhook community, an unincorporated area.

"This is not going to help the flood problems in East Prairie," Heisel said. "The reason we are fighting it so hard is that it is a spectacular biological area."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126