Senator Blunt says the Corps of Engineers are doing a great job helping out in the affected area, but their master plan is destined to work against them. The plan, or manual as it is sometimes refered to, was written in 2004, and sets up a “Spring rise,” or higher water in the southern Missouri River, so that certain fish and bird populations are guaranteed to rise. Blunt says all it really guarantees is a flood every year.
He says the Corps should have released water in the winter, when it became clear this would be a year of record precipitation. Counties like Holt County, in northwestern Missouri have seen five floods in five years, and are expecting this year to be the worst.
Blunt says it could be as late as September before the flooding and high levee pressure lets up. He says he’s looking for opportunities to rewrite the master plan, so this won’t keep happening. He says he, Congressman Graves and former Senator Bond have been fighting this system for about ten years.