LEVEE AGREEMENT

Thrust between a rock and a hard place, so to speak, Ste. Genevieve was faced with an ultimatum following the devastating flooding of 1993 and 1995: You can have your new, rock levee downstream to protect farmland, or you can have a promised $48 million levee to protect your historic town. You can't have both.

The federal government told the rural levee district that if it didn't remove the rock topping from the agricultural levee, Ste. Genevieve wouldn't get the new levee to protect the city. Included in the threat was the potential suspension of flood insurance or any other federal disaster assistance for future floods.

The reasoning was that the rural levee, raised during the record flood of 1993, might aggravate flooding in neighboring areas. But removal of the rock would cost an estimated $3 million. Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state would put up 95 percent of the removal cost, even 5 percent would be a crushing burden to the county.

Dennis Huck, presiding commissioner of the Ste. Genevieve County Commission, which filed a lawsuit against the rural levee district to force removal of the rock, voiced this optimistic opinion: "Personally, I'd like to see both sides prevail." Despite doubts that could happen, both sides seemed to have prevailed after all.

Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had said the rural levee would have to be lowered 3 to 5 feet to meet their standards, a compromise has been approved that will lower the levee 2 feet and ensure construction of the levee to protect the town.

The 3.5 miles of new levee will be built in front of the city of Ste. Genevieve and will protect the town from up to 52 feet of water, which is about 2 1/2 feet higher than the record crest in 1993. Construction of the levee is planned to begin in the spring and should be completed by 1999.

The entire episode helps to illustrate an all-too-common problem with the federal government. On the one hand, Ste. Genevieve had the corps and the National Guard feverishly building the rural levee to protect thousands of acres of farmland and about 50 historic homes. On the other hand, the federal government says that work, which garnered national acclaim during the frantic flood fight of 1993, must be undone before a new levee can be built to keep the 1993 disaster from reoccurring.

Thankfully, officials from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and the federal government found a way to clear that hurdle and come to a reasonable agreement.