WASHINGTON  -  U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (MO-08) today stated her opposition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan which calls for two spring rises on the Missouri River.  The plan has the potential to flood millions of acres of farmland and threaten waterfront development along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers’ banks.

 

“The Corps is essentially proposing a flood on purpose, not once but twice,” Emerson said.  “We’ve seen enough of flooding this year, I think, and the safety and property concerns of Missourians who live along the river ought to come before a mitigation plan for wildlife.  This is not a controlled experiment in a laboratory – this is a massive amount of water rolling down-river, flooding any field and damaging any structure in its path.”

 

The two spring rises outlined in the Draft 2005-2006 Annual Operating Plan for the Missouri River would occur in March and May of 2006.  The goal of the plan is to comply with the Endangered Species Act, a law Emerson has voted to amend several times.

 

“This plan exemplifies precisely what is wrong with the Endangered Species Act – it puts the welfare of endangered species ahead of the well-being of people.  We need a results-based system for the recognition and rehabilitation of threatened species.  The only results being accomplished under the existing law are either negligible – like the 1 percent of species in 30 years rehabilitated enough to get off the endangered list – or negative – like the risk to people and property contained in the Corps plan,” Emerson said.  “If this plan is implemented, we would be turning farmers’ spring fields into swimming pools for the pallid sturgeon.  It doesn’t make sense and it isn’t fair to our hardworking producers.”

 

Public comments on the plan will be accepted until December 1, 2005.