COMMERCIAL WELL BEING RIDES ON WATER LEVEL TIFF

A battle is raging hundreds of miles away, yet its outcome will determine something about how our backyard looks. It is a fight as old as the settlement of the West, over water rights. Northern states believe their reservoirs feeding the Missouri River are too freely loosed for southward flow. States in the lower reach of the Missouri River contend the water is needed for navigation and commerce. For the sake of economic factors down~stream, the interests of those northern states must not be allowed to prevail.

It is true the reservoirs involved in this matter are in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota; their claim to the water is legitimate. It is also true that water levels in these reservoirs have been diminished by unfavorable weather conditions in recent years. However, the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the river, has for decades cited flood control, irrigation, navigation and hydroelectric power generation as priority concerns. Northern states want the rules rewritten to oblige upstream recreational interests. A lawsuit has been filed to accomplish this and the attorneys general of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska are challenging it. Lawmakers are working to ensure the Corps doesn't given in to an inequitable settlement.

The genesis of Cape Girardeau's can be traced to the Mississippi River. The river remains a root of local strength, providing an avenue for shipping agricultural goods and natural resources domestically and abroad. On the upper Mississippi, the Missouri River is the largest tributary. Therefore, the strength of flow in the Missouri River directly influences the volume of water that makes its way past Cape Girardeau.

More than 100 million tons of cargo, with a value of $16 billion, are shipped on the middle Mississippi annually. More than half the nation's grain exports are shipped on these waterways each year. According to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, if the water reductions had taken place in 1990, realized net farm income in Missouri would have dropped by $105 million. In short, the upriver proposal would cost the midwestern economy barge industry abandonment, capital improvements made useless, higher food prices, public facility redesign hundreds of millions of dollars. Can the recreational attractions of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana offset those losses in the grand scheme of water utilization?

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau serves on the House Water Resources Subcommittee and has his finger on the pulse of this issue. Emerson and other lawmakers met in Washington Tuesday with Corps of Engineers officials, who are reviewing the master water control manual that regulates water levels on the Missouri River. Emerson came away encouraged by the Corps' frame of mind on this question, but we encourage him and other lawmakers to remain vigilant. The river is an essential part of the commerce of Middle America. Its value to the economic interests of our region should not be given second billing to water sports in northern states.