COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Three Midwestern Republican governors of states ravaged by recent flooding on Wednesday demanded more authority over management of the Missouri River system.
Following a meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson criticized the federal body that manages the river, saying it puts too much emphasis on fish and wildlife habitat and not enough on flood control.
“One thing is clear: Something needs to change,” said Parson, who pointed to increasing damage from flooding over the last decade with no solutions in sight.
The governors said they plan to work together for that change, even if it means petitioning Congress to give states more authority in river management.
Ricketts complained that even when funding for reinforcement of levees is approved, it’s often years before the work is actually done. In some cases, flooding repeats before the work even starts. “That permitting process has got to be faster,” he said.
Reynolds said the governors would be presenting a united front to the federal government in demanding more authority.
“We can’t continue to do things like build a temporary levee that would protect a community, and after the Corps deems the flood incident over, require them to tear it down,” she said.
Asked whether the Corps indicated it would or could cede some river management decisions to the states, Parson replied, “Well, they listened.”
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, also was scheduled to attend but had transportation problems and did not make it.
The Corps has said it works to balance all its priorities and that much of the flooding was well out of its control. The agency said that much of the water that created the flooding came from record rains and melting snow that flowed over frozen ground and directly into the river downstream of its dams, all while massive amounts of water filled Missouri River reservoirs and had to be released.
On Wednesday, the Corps released numbers showing record March runoff in the upper Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, of 11 million acre feet — nearly 4 million acre feet more than the previous record of 7.3 million set in 1952. The average March upper basin runoff is 2.9 million acre feet, the Corps said.
