CORPS FUNDING OF LEVEE WORK URGED; OFFICIALS TELL GOVERNMENT TO FOOT THE BILL

Old Man River isn't to blame for this one.

Rather it's the federally funded levee improvements on the Illinois side that have put added pressure on the Commerce-Birds Point Levee in Southeast Missouri, area officials say.

The federal government should pay the entire cost of improving the 35-mile levee that protects much of Scott and Mississippi counties from Mississippi River flooding, area officials told the Mississippi River Commission Monday.

But Corps of Engineers officials said the agency doesn't have the funding to foot the entire bill. The levee is part of a chain of levees that extend south to New Orleans.

The Mississippi River Commission includes both civilian and military representatives that act as an advisory group to the Corps of Engineers.

It is chaired by Maj. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, commander of the Corps of Engineers' Lower Mississippi Valley Division.

The commission held a public meeting at 8:30 a.m. aboard the Corps of Engineers' motor vessel Mississippi at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port near Scott City.

The 1 1/2-hour meeting was the first stop of the commission on its annual high-water inspection trip.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson called for improvements to the Commerce-Birds Point Levee in a written statement read by her chief of staff, Lloyd Smith.

Smith said legislative duties in Washington prevented Emerson from attending the commission hearing.

U.S. Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond and John Ashcroft also couldn't attend but issued a statement supporting the need for levee improvements.

Smith said its "Ole Man Government" and not Ole Man River that has made matters worse.

The levee from Commerce to Birds Point is a weak link that has been weakened further by federally funded improvements to the Len Small Levee on the Illinois side, he said.

"If this weak link fails, all the communities of Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Dunklin counties in Missouri will be affected," Smith told the commission.

The Sikeston airport would be under 8 to 10 feet of water, and Interstates 55 and 57 and a number of major state highways would be impassable, Smith said.

"Nearly 200,000 lives will be lost or disrupted; homes and businesses will be destroyed," he said. "It's likely that the entire region will never be able to recover."

Smith said the federal government should pay the entire cost of raising and shoring up the earthen levee and in constructing relief wells.

"The time for talk has passed," he said. "The time for action is now."

Smith and other officials said the Miller City-Len Small Levee in Alexander County, Ill., was repaired and realigned using federal dollars following the 1993 flood.

The agricultural levee was improved with funding obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The St. Louis office of the Corps of Engineers assisted in designing the improvements, Smith said.

He said the improvements put added pressure on the Missouri levee during the 1995 flooding.

Larry Brazel is president of Levee District No. 2, which maintains 14 miles on the north end of the levee.

He said the district can't afford to buy the 1 million yards of dirt needed to raise the levee.

Corps officials said the levee needs to be raised two to four feet.

Bob Kielhofner, Scott County's presiding commissioner, said the levee district operates on a budget of $3,800 a year. The money comes from a tax paid by about 100 landowners.

Kielhofner said the levee district doesn't have the money to fund major improvements to the levee. But he said the district is willing to help with rights of way.

Flowers said the Corps plans to begin installing some 100 relief wells this summer designed to relieve pressure from water seepage.

But he and others on the Mississippi River Commission warned that federal funding cuts would limit the Corps' ability to make levee and drainage improvements all along the river.

President Clinton wants to cut more than $44 million from the Corps of Engineers' budget for levee and drainage projects along the river and its tributaries, Flowers said.