Senators seek meeting on levee gap

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Both U.S. senators from Missouri are seeking a meeting with stakeholders in an effort to close a 1,500-foot gap in a Mississippi River levee in Southeast Missouri.

Republican Roy Blunt and Democrat Claire McCaskill on Monday expressed dismay at the inability to fix a gap in the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway levee. Construction to fix the gap was halted in 2007 due to technical problems with the project's Environmental Impact Statement.

McCaskill and Blunt say they have reached out to the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but have been unable to have the project restarted.

McCaskill said all sides should be able to find a commonsense compromise. Blunt calls the delays "inexcusable."