Two congressmen, one from Omaha and one from central Iowa, demanded Saturday that the Army Corps of Engineers give greater emphasis to flood control.
Standing on a levee south of Eppley Airfield, surrounded by vast pools of water on one side and the overflowing Missouri River on the other, U.S. Reps. Lee Terry and Tom Latham said the damage done by the river this season is unacceptable.
They said the corps must not allow its flood-control priority to be watered down by competing demands.
"We need to make flood control the top-line item," Terry, the Omaha Republican, said. He added that "you can't have 10 things that are No. 1."
A corps official who toured the area with the congressmen indicated that managing the six-reservoir Missouri River system isn't simple. There is only so much capacity, and there are times when holding water is vital and times when releasing it is essential.
The tour around the Omaha airport included Mayor Jim Suttle and Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who had examined the river in South Dakota on Friday. Mica is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Col. Robert Ruch, corps commander for the Omaha district, said flood control is, in fact, the corps' top priority.
Nevertheless, he said, it's the only priority that calls for water to be held back by the Missouri reservoir system. The other priorities, including irrigation, hydropower and recreation, require water to be released.
When more space in the reservoirs is formally set aside to hold water for flood control, less space is available to retain water that could be released when there are droughts.
It's a matter of deftly balancing the priorities, Ruch said.
Numerous governors from the Missouri River basin signed a letter Friday asking the corps to examine what happened this year and report back on what it can do to reduce flood damage in the future.
But Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told The World-Herald that downriver governors' passion for flood control hurts his state's recreation and economic development programs.
Ruch said in an interview Saturday that the corps has been so busy managing the river this summer that it hasn't had a chance to consider changes for the long haul. The corps will make that assessment in time, he said.
Mica said Terry and Latham, an Iowa Republican, have impressed upon him the importance of flood control on the Missouri.
Mica said seeing that levees have failed and people have lost their homes, farms and businesses are powerful arguments for better flood control. "That's got to be the primary mission of the Corps of Engineers," Mica said.
Nearby, water that had seeped around the airport grounds was pumped through long tubes back into the Missouri River. Mica called it an "engineering marvel" that had saved the airport from being swamped.
Suttle, though, said that as floodwaters recede, the area may experience sewer and water pipe problems, power line difficulties and failures in bridge supports. And the troubles caused by the months-long flood, he said, will continue.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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