“We have seen enough of floods this year, that is certain.  That’s why I was astonished and dismayed to see the Army Corps of Engineers’ Annual Operating Plan this week.  The 2006 plan calls for not one, but two releases of water from the Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota, first in March and once again in May.

 

That water will roll down the Missouri River and into the Mississippi, pushing up the level of the spring rise by an additional three feet.  The results will be devastating: over a million acres of farmland flooded and waterfront development along both rivers threatened.  Instead of sending those farmers out into their fields to plant their crops, the Corps is sending them straight to the flood insurance office.

 

Why this tremendous risk to farmland and property?  Fish gotta swim.  The Pallid Sturgeon, to be exact, is the reason the Corps of Engineers wants to turn our fields into shallow swimming pools.

 

The natural spring rise is a general indication to the Pallid Sturgeon that it is time to mate.  The Corps of Engineers’ thought, then, is that it will provide two artificially-high spring rises to send this signal.  Their logic escapes me.  Why would two big spring rises work when the natural spring rise has not?

 

Neither does it make sense that barge transportation has been hindered throughout our dry summer because the rivers have been stuck at historically low levels.  The Corps of Engineers was loath to release water to improve the draft for barges carrying farmers’ crops, driving transportation prices up as barge capacity fell.  For the Pallid Sturgeon, on the other hand, the Corps of Engineers is willing to raise the river twice.

 

Since September of 1990, the Pallid Sturgeon has occupied a place on the Endangered Species List, a law that is notoriously ineffective.  The most telling statistic is that, out of more than 1200 species on the list, only 10 have been de-listed over the 33-year life of the law.  The success rate is less than one percent.  These pitiful results are the effect of heavy-handed policies that put the welfare of species well ahead of the lives and livelihoods of the American people. 

 

The “Floods on Purpose,” as I like to call them, are just the most recent example of government run amok. 

 

The Fish and Wildlife Service has a perfectly reasonable plan in place to farm the Pallid Sturgeon and release the juvenile fish into our nation’s rivers 1500 at a time.  Bolstering the population is a great idea that won’t put any farms under water.  The Floods on Purpose, on the other hand, make the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers guaranteed visitors to our Southern Missouri farms early next year.

 

I’ve voted repeatedly for legislation to reform the Endangered Species Act and to force the government to work with landowners instead of against them.  Simply put, we need a results-based system to identify populations of at-risk species and rehabilitate them.  The process for accomplishing this important goal must place a greater value on people and property than on the endangered species.

 

The federal government will accept comments from the public on the Army Corps of Engineers plan until December 1, 2005.  Rest assured, my strong opinion will be among them, as I work with my colleagues all along our rivers to stop the Floods on Purpose.”