Flood worries halt spring release from dams on lower Missouri River

ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it heard the concerns of worried Missourians and has eliminated the spring release on the Missouri River below Kansas City.

The corps announced that it began holding back releases from tributary dams in the lower Missouri midday Wednesday. That move effectively negates releases -- in the lower Missouri River only -- that already were put in motion 13 hours earlier from Gavins Point Dam in Yankton, S.D.

The corps said the move will still provide a pulse of water that's needed this time of year to prompt spawning of an endangered fish. But it eliminates the extra flow in flood-weary Missouri.

"We would not have started the March pulse from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota if we felt there was risk to public health and safety," said Larry Cieslik, who oversees water management on the Missouri River, in Omaha, Neb. "But we have heard the concerns of people in Missouri loud and clear.

"This option achieves the benefit for the pallid sturgeon in the upper river while completely eliminating the flood risk from the pulse downstream of Kansas City to the confluence with the Mississippi River."

Efforts earlier in the week by the state of Missouri to stop the release failed.

U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton ruled Tuesday she found no evidence to show the corps was not following the law. And, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's appeal of Hamilton's decision.

State officials, from Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, serving as acting governor while Gov. Matt Blunt is out of the country, to Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., urged the federal government to halt the spring rise. The corps also heard from citizens, spokesman Paul Johnston said.

Kinder thanked the corps on Thursday, adding "Missourians can rest assured that their voices have been heard in this time of great disaster in our state."

Blunt's response was less enthusiastic. He said while he is encouraged by the corps' decision, "we stand by our constant position that the so-called 'spring rise' is unnecessary in the first place."

Nixon called the decision "welcome news," and said the corps felt "intense pressure" from the threat of more legal action.

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, the corps began adjusting releases from five tributary dams in Missouri and Kansas to effectively negate, in the lower Missouri River, the upriver release that had started just after midnight Tuesday.

The corps said releases from Milford, Tuttle Creek and Perry dams on Kansas River tributaries; Clinton Dam on the Wakarusa River; and Smithville Dam on the Little Platte River will be cut varying amounts to compensate for the release upriver.

The corps usually releases extra water in March, and again in May, to prompt spawning of the pallid sturgeon, a fish that managed to survive over millennia but is now on the endangered species list.

That's in addition to even greater volumes of water the corps releases from Gavins Point throughout much of the year to support navigation, fisheries and drinking water supplies. Missouri did not challenge releases for those purposes.

The corps has said that despite widespread flooding in Missouri last week, river levels are dropping, and the release would have posed no risk to public safety. The agency continually monitors water levels, weather forecasts and other data to guide its decisions.

In arguing its case earlier this week, the corps said forecasts indicated that river stages in central and eastern Missouri would remain well below flood stage by the time the released water arrives next week. The corps said Thursday that the Missouri River throughout its length is well below flood stage, and that river stages are forecast to continue falling over the coming days.

The corps is responsible for flood control, navigation and inducing an environment for endangered species like the sturgeon.

With 70 counties declared a disaster last week, Missouri is experiencing one of the wettest springs in history, Department of Natural Resources water chief Michael Wells said.

Agency guidelines allow the corps to adjust the amount of water or cancel the release altogether if it would exacerbate downstream flooding or upstream drought conditions.

This was the first time the corps conducted a March release since it was required, effective in 2005, to avoid jeopardizing the endangered fish's continued existence.

Drought conditions and low reservoir levels upstream caused the corps to withhold March and May releases last year, and the March release in 2006. Cieslik said there won't be sufficient supplies in the upstream reservoirs to release water in May.