River basin gets D+ grade in report card

A recent assessment of the Mississippi River basin pointed out many shortcomings, particularly in infrastructure, although Southeast Missouri's riverside communities are not necessarily facing those same problems.

America's Watershed Initiative on Wednesday released a report card, issuing grades in six categories, including flood control, transportation and recreation.

The overall grade assigned to the basin was a D+. Primary concerns cited in the report include aging transportation infrastructure, such as locks and dams, and flood control.

Reports also were available for each of the river's sub-basins, which includes the Lower Mississippi River Basin. Cape Girardeau is near the boundary line of the upper and lower basins. The lower basin continues south of the Missouri Bootheel and through Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Lower Mississippi River Basin also received a grade of D+. Like the overall Mississippi River basin, the sub-basin received poor marks in infrastructure and flood control.

In providing reliable flood protection and risk reduction, the overall grade was a D+. Failure to adequately maintain levees, dams and other infrastructure; changes in the landscape causing increased surface water runoff; and development of communities and other permanent structures in flood-prone areas all lead to an increase in flood threats, the report said.

"The results in the Report Card were poor, especially because development within floodplains is increasing," stated a grade explanation featured on America's Watershed Initiative's website. "Risks from severe river floods were highest in the eastern portion of the watershed and along the Lower Mississippi River, although intensive investment in flood control infrastructure avoided huge losses from the record flood in 2011."

The lower basin received a D in the flood protection and risk category, with similarly poor grades in floodplain population change and levee conditions.

But Jim Pogue, spokesman with the Memphis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the issues cited within the report are not necessarily problems in this area.

Many areas with aging or dilapidated infrastructure -- the poor maintenance of which led to the overall watershed's failing grade in transportation -- are outside of the Memphis District, he said. The district stretches as far north as Cairo, Illinois, and covers parts of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and a small part of northern Mississippi.

The district's infrastructure is in better condition because it benefits from a federal levee program implemented after the 1927 flood.

"That allowed us to construct the fully federally funded levee system that we have down here," Pogue said of the program. "Up north, it's not quite as comprehensive a system of levees and flood protection."

Those levees were put to the test when record rainfalls in 2011 led to major flooding across the region and forced the corps to activate the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County. The report issued by the initiative praised the success of the infrastructure in place, noting its role in the prevention of more widespread property damage and loss of life.

"It worked," Pogue said of the infrastructure. "Nobody drowned or was washed out in areas that were protected by the levee system."

As for those living in floodplains, Pogue said risk communication is a "really important part of what we do." The corps works to help people understand what level of flood risks they face in their community and what efforts have been taken to provide flood protection. Still, he said, those living in flood-prone areas carry some responsibility for understanding the risks.

A local community that long has struggled with river flooding is Dutchtown. After years of sandbagging and attempting to protect the low-lying homes, the village applied for and received assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a flood buyout. Eleven of the 15 eligible homes took the offer and moved out this summer, and their homes were leveled last month.

"We're really glad to see that program moving forward," Pogue said. "As hard as it is for people to move, it's in their best interest. It's an area that we won't have to worry about devoting resources to in the future, and I think it's better for everyone in the long run."

The lower basin's highest grade was a B, which it received for recreation. The category measured areas such as hunting, fishing and birding activities.

It received a C for ecosystems, C- for economy and a D for water supply, which took into account the number of water treatment violations.

The full report is available at americaswater.wpengine.com/reportcard/.

The report card is the initiative's first and was developed jointly with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The initiative comprises 400 representatives from business and the public sector with expertise in river and conservation issues ranging from commerce to agriculture to flood control. It was founded in 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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