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Save the River

An op-ed piece by U.S. Congressman Sam Graves (Missouri 6^th District) was carried in late March in at least one Kansas City-area newspaper.  Congressman Graves’ piece made the case for his efforts to obstruct the adoption of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) draft implementation plan for operations of the Missouri River.  This op-ed piece contained a number of factual distortions and inaccuracies.

The USACE plan contains elements proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to minimize the effects of current river operations on the river’s endangered and threatened species.  It is Congressman Graves’ position that current operations practices should be maintained because, in essence, they favor agricultural and barge interests over the goals of the FWS as contained in the draft implementation plan.

Congressman Graves contends that agricultural producers along the Missouri “depend heavily on river navigation to export grain to the world market,” and he emphasizes the importance of commerce as a component of the Missouri’s story.  In fact, according to the USACE and the  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Missouri River barges actually carry only 0.3% of all the grain harvested each year in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.  The USACE, in justifying what are now its current operations practices, predicted years ago that 12 to 20 million tons of commercial cargo would move by barge on the Missouri each year.  The most that has ever moved on the Missouri is 3.3 million tons (in 1977).  Currently, only about 1.5 million tons of cargo is shipped by barge on the Missouri annually.  Independent review by agriculture economists from Iowa State University, the University of Nebraska and Kansas State University suggests that so little barge traffic exists on the Missouri that it does not measurably impact truck and rail rates.  The USACE estimates that Missouri River barges produce only $6.9 million in annual economic benefits, while the USACE spends over $7 million in taxpayer dollars to maintain the lower river (below Sioux City, Iowa) for navigation.

Another point made by Congressman Graves is that the draft implementation plan’s changes in flow for the Missouri would create “an artificial spring rise” and “could increase the chance of flooding and make potential flooding more severe.”  He goes on to state that earlier releases of water from upstream dams would result in lower summer water levels, disrupting summer barge traffic.  In fact, the revised flow regime would not create “an artificial spring rise”: it would mimic the Missouri’s natural seasonal flow volumes.  Furthermore, the draft implementation plan will still provide 99% of the flood control benefits of the current system.  According to the USACE, the draft implementation plan would end up providing a net drainage benefit for floodplain farmers.  And the USACE estimates that, on average, there is currently only one barge tow per day on the 735 miles of the lower Missouri, particularly during the little-used summer months.  Finally, 80% or more of the farm-related cargo on the Missouri moves in the spring and fall.

The Missouri River has perpetually been at or near the top of the list of this nation’s most endangered rivers.  A spring rise in water flow and reduction of summer flow, as proposed by the USACE’s draft implementation plan, would do more to restore the Missouri than any other single action.  It would prevent species extinction and enhance recreation and tourism, providing a big economic boost for riverside communities in Congressman Graves’ district and all along the river.

Commemoration of the bicentennial anniversary of Lewis & Clark’s expedition up the Missouri will occur in 2003.  The river of Lewis & Clark teemed with life, with countless islands, expansive sandbars, forests, wetlands, and oxbow lakes.  In large part, that river no longer exists.  In the past 100 years, the USACE has turned long stretches of the Missouri into a barge canal used by only a trickle of barges.  The river’s natural flow no longer exists, and that is wiping out the native fish and birds because they can’t spawn and nest on the river anymore.  The people of the Missouri River basin are not clamoring for a barge canal.  They want to find native species of flora and fauna, and places to camp and canoe and hike.  It takes a healthy river to provide that.  The Missouri is not currently a healthy river, but adoption of the draft implementation plan would be a step in the right direction.  The FWS’s biologists, fish and wildlife biologists from the Missouri River basin states, and many other scientists agree that some semblance of natural flows must be restored to the Missouri River to prevent species extinction.

And that brings us to this: extinction means GONE FOREVER.  We are in the midst of a mass species extinction the likes of which has been seen five other times in the earth’s history.  An example of these mass extinctions was the die-off of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.  The difference with the current mass extinction is that the actions of people are responsible for this one.  This sort of anthropocentric arrogance can be our legacy.  We can take a small step away from this destructive legacy.  It won’t ensure that the current mass extinction will be terminated, but it is a relatively simple and economically advantageous step.  We must take this opportunity to see to it that the USACE’s draft implementation plan, on which scientific support is abundantly clear, is adopted without modification.

William Gresham, April 2001

Bill Gresham lives and ponders on planet Earth.  His writings also have appeared on Mind Like Water's column EcoLogic.  Click here for links to those articles.

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