by Roy C. Hengerson, Legislative Committee Chair
The Missouri River is 2,341 miles long and its watershed makes up one sixth of the United States. The Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) has built six large dams on the main stem of the River and made numerous other changes and modifications to the River to promote such economic benefits as navigation, flood control, water supply, hydropower, and recreation. However, these benefits have come at a price: fish and wildlife habitat has been lost and destroyed, unsuitable development in the floodplain has been encouraged, and the living river system is in jeopardy.
Although the mighty Missouri has been controlled, altered, and tamed she has not completely lost her wild character. We remember well the 1993 flood and how the floodplain was altered by the Missouri River’s turbulent and muddy waters. I have a vivid recollection of standing on a high bluff near Boonville, Missouri, a day or two after the highest crest of that prolonged flood and seeing the power of the River as her waters swept downstream the full width of the floodplain.
Despite such periodic wildness, the Missouri River is not a healthy river. Its fish and wildlife habitat is degraded, some species which depend on the riverine environment are threatened and endangered, flood losses increase as the River is constricted by higher levees located closer to the River, and recreation opportunities are foreclosed. The U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a biological opinion stating that changes are necessary in how the Corps of Engineers manages the releases from the Missouri River dams if three threatened and endangered species are to survive.
In response, the Corps initiated the Missouri River Master Water Control Manual Review, continuing their study of needed changes begun in the early 1990s. Just recently the Corps released the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on a range of alternatives for Master Water Control Manual. The DEIS analyzes the environmental and other effects of a set of six alternatives: one is the current Water Control Plan, one is a modified conservation plan, and four alternatives add various changes to the pattern of releases from Gavins Point Dam, the lowest of the six dams. The Corps has been holding public information meetings and hearings up and down the river corridor. Many different interests have weighed in on the alternatives.
The Sierra Club has been working to develop its position on proposed modifications to the River’s management. Many different regional, statewide, and local Club entities have been involved with Missouri River issues and bring their perspectives to these critical decisions. At a meeting in Omaha in June 2001, an overall framework or position statement was crafted and subsequently approved by the Sierra Club entities in the Missouri River watershed. Club activists participated in the Corps hearings held up and down the River in November 2001.
The Sierra Club supports the basic idea that a spring rise in the water levels below Gavins Point Dam would make the flow regime more like the natural flow regime before the Corps dams and project were instituted and would help improve the habitat for the pallid sturgeon, the interior least tern, and the piping plover (the three threatened and endangered species). However, control of the flows is only one part of restoring fish and wildlife habitat. Many other actions can be taken to improve habitat, and we believe this should be a major goal of Missouri River management. This would also create more opportunities for recreation along the River.
In implementing the Master Water Control Plan revisions, improved monitoring for water quality, habitat quality, species decline, species recovery, and other parameters is needed. This monitoring can then be used to guide future management decisions. The Corps is calling this “adaptive management” and the Club is very supportive of the concept. We also want the River to be reconnected with its floodplain, and not just during extreme floods. There should be a wide variety of habitats along the River for the many different species which live in and around the River corridor.
The Sierra Club opposes out-of-basin water diversions. These would impact historic natural fish and wildlife communities and reduce the benefits the River provides to human communities in its watershed. We also oppose in-basin water depletions which would have similar impacts.
You have until February 28, 2002, to comment on the Missouri River Master Manual Review and DEIS. To get a copy of the summary document you can visit one of many public libraries along the Missouri River or fax a request to 402-697-2504 or e-mail a request to mastermanual@usace.army.mil or you can view the document on the Corps’ website: www.nwd.usace.army.mil
I urge you to become involved in helping to protect and restore the natural diversity and health of the mighty Missouri River.
For more information contact: Roy Hengerson, 2201 Weathered Rock Rd., Jefferson City, MO. 65101, 573-635-8066, roy.hengerson@sierraclub.org