A Congressional committee has scheduled a hearing later this month to examine the Corps of Engineers’ response to the summer floods–and its plans to avoid a 20-12 repeat.
All nine of Missouri’s Congressmen and women are members of a Missouri River working group, joined by other members from river states. The group generally thinks the Corps could have handled things better this year and worries that levee repairs won’t be made before the 20-12 flood season.
Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves’ district took the biggest hit this year. He says the Corps does not seem to be taking this year’s rains and snowmelt experiences into account when planning for next year. And he says management priorities are out of whack–with six million dollars set aside for flood control each year but $70 million dollars year spent on endangered species and wildlife habitat reclamation.
The Corps has said repeatedly that flood control is clearly the top priority…but if congress wants even greater emphasis the other seven priorities–including commercial navigation that’s important to Missouri–will have to take a distant back seat.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources has scheduled a hearing for November 30th.