Corps hears about flood project from local officials

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Some of the faces have changed, but the top issue presented to the Mississippi River Commission during stops in New Madrid remains the same: the St. Johns Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project.

Only 75 days in office, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, 8th District, already has heard from constituents that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "is all too often becoming part of the problem with Mississippi River management and not the solution."

Smith, who presented testimony to the commission during a town-hall meeting aboard its Motor Vessel Mississippi at the New Madrid waterfront Monday, said he will continue the tradition of his predecessors "of making sure that the interests of the people that live and work here are put ahead of people who would seek to control their lives and livelihoods -- radical environmentalists and animal-rights activists."

The biggest surprise in Washington, D.C., has been finding "rogue agencies running roughshod over the intent and direct will of duly elected representatives in Congress," Smith said. "The best example I have seen of this sentiment is embodied in the recently released draft [environmental impact statement] for the St. Johns-New Madrid Flood Control Project. This project, originally authorized in 1954, has a clear and explicit purpose to provide flood protection, period. The project has been funded by Congress, local partners have stepped up to the plate, and at one point construction had even started. Yet here we are, nearly 70 years later, with this scheme to build an environmental project with flood control money."

The project's local partners "have waited for generations for flood protection," he said, "only to have their project delayed by bureaucratic indecision and lawsuits. Here we are today, with yet another 'draft EIS,' only this time the Corps of Engineers appears to have abandoned the goal of flood protection."

Smith said it appears to him the corps is no longer working to combat environmental interests as they once did.

"I hold out hope that this draft EIS will be placed on the scrap heap of history," he said. "To ignore 70 years of laws, appropriations and local partnership and then to accept this document as the ruling authority on this project would shatter what little confidence many still have left in the Corps of Engineers."

Testimony on behalf of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt provided by Downey Palmer, counselor for the senator, stated that while there are "differing viewpoints" of the St. Johns Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project, "the corps should be using the congressionally authorized purposes for the flood control project as the guiding principles for implementing it. ... Flood protection should be the primary goal of the project."

David Wade, an attorney speaking on behalf of the Bayou Basin board of directors, urged proceeding with the installation of the pumping station at New Madrid while environmental issues associated with the floodway part of the project are sorted out.

Furg Hunter, a board member for the St. Johns Levee and Drainage District, had an unexpected view of the draft EIS.

"We are glad it has finally hit the street," he said, even though his board has "concerns about a lot of the wording."

Hunter explained they are pleased things are finally moving again and they are looking forward to the public comment on the EIS.

He noted if the St. Johns Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project had been completed, crops lost this year to rains in May and June "would have been prevented."

Public meetings concerning the draft EIS for the St. Johns Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project will be Tuesday and Aug. 28.