Rep. Smith asks Obama to preserve levee plan

After new opposition arose regarding the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, sent a letter last week to President Barack Obama, voicing his support and calling for the project's completion.

The letter was sent a day after government and civic leaders from the region sent letters to the president, saying the project would increase flood risks for predominantly black communities in Southern Illinois, including Cairo.

The project that encompasses areas in New Madrid, Mississippi and

Scott counties in Missouri is designed to manage flood risks to St. Johns Bayou.

A tentative plan would close a 1,500-foot gap in the Mississippi River levee system and construct a 1,500-cubic-foot-per-second pumping station in the New Madrid Floodway and a 1,000-cubic-foot-per-second pump station in the St. Johns Bayou Basin.

It also calls for modifying 23 miles of ditches in the basin and waterfowl management during waterfowl season in both basins. The project's total cost is estimated at $164.8 million.

Smith, the 8th District congressman, is an advocate of the project. During the 2013 comment period for the project's draft environmental impact statement, Smith wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers voicing his support for closing the gap to protect 34,000 residents living in St. Johns Bayou who regularly experience backwater flooding from the river.

But the project has received its share of criticism from those who claim the gap provides relief for the river in times of flooding.

Environmental groups have long opposed the plan, with some saying it does too little to protect wildlife that depend on the wetlands.

Such groups sent their own letters to the president last week, suggesting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exercise its veto power granted through a rarely used provision in the Clean Water Act.

As The Associated Press reported, the National Wildlife Federation said the EPA has invoked its veto authority on just 13 projects since 1972.

In his letter, Smith urged the president to "resist any requests" to use such a veto. He said the people of Southeast Missouri have spent 60 years waiting for the floodway project and "do not appreciate being held hostage by a radical environmentalist agenda."

Smith also said he reviewed many of the letters sent to the president Tuesday and said many expressing their opposition were from the Kansas City, Missouri, area and did not live in the affected region.

As for the concerns the project will increase flooding dangers in Southern Illinois, Smith said this belief is "unfounded and not based in science."

He also expressed concern that interference by the president would "derail" the project.

"The Corps of Engineers has repeatedly determined that this project creates no additional risk of flooding to upstream or downstream communities," he wrote. " ... This project has been fully vetted by the Corps of Engineers and all of the environmental concerns have been addressed time and again. To use an EPA 'Clean Water Act Veto' at this juncture would be improper, and an insult to the process and all of the work undertaken by the individuals who have worked so diligently to get it to this point."

Once the corps completes its review of the comments received on the draft environmental impact statement, a final impact statement will be formulated and sent to an independent panel of experts for review.

That review process was scheduled to begin in September.

The number and scope of revisions the group suggests will determine when the final statement will be released for public review.

After the public review period, the corps will submit the final statement, public comments and the corps' response to those comments to the Mississippi Valley commanding general.

The commanding general will implement the plan or take no action.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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