Senators Call for Changes in Flood-control Systems

A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Army Corps of Engineers to make adjustments to flood-control management procedures to reduce the risk of devastation next year.

 

In a letter to the Corps’ top officials, 12 senators from six states usually impacted by Missouri flood waters posed a series of questions designed to explore the scope and limits to the agency’s authority to make changes in its management practices.

 

Specifically, the senators’ focused on established Corps procedures for operating dams and levees along the Missouri.

 

“As Iowans and others along the Missouri River continue to cope with record-level flooding, it’s high time to figure out how to avoid a similar scenario next year,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement released with the letter. “Flood control must be the top priority for how the Army Corps of Engineers manages the dams on the river.”

 

The senators representing Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota said it was “critical” that “appropriate mechanisms be incorporated to allow for deviation” from set flood-control management plans “should circumstances dictate.”