Missouri sues to block demolition of river levee (to prevent damage in Cairo IL)

[SoCalDem]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/us-missouri-flood-suit-idUSTRE73P72M20110427


KANSAS CITY, Mo | Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:52pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - The Missouri attorney general filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday asking a judge to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' plans to detonate the levee at Birds Point on the Mississippi River. Attorney General Chris Koster said the Corps, which manages the river, is preparing to intentionally breach the levee in hopes of keeping Cairo, Illinois, from flooding. Koster said demolition of the levee will cause serious flooding across as much as 130,000 acres of Mississippi County, Missouri.

A law enacted in 1928 allows the Corps to blow up the levee if water at Cairo reaches a certain level. But Koster believes the law is "unclear" as to whether the Corps actually has the authority to make the decision to detonate. "There are no 'good' options at this juncture," said Koster in a statement. But he said given the long-term effects of the government's proposal on Missouri citizens, the state wants a review by the federal court.

snip

He said detonating the levee, which hasn't been done since 1937, would take one quarter of the flow out of the river and thus reduce pressure on other levee systems. Koster said the flooding would leave a layer of silt that could take a generation to clear, causing significant injury to the quality of the farmland. The flooding also would affect 100 homes.

snip

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm gonna side with the river on this one. Blow the levee.

Reimburse landowners as appropriate.

And I thought that silt left by flooding was a natural and a good thing for soil quality.

[SoCalDem]

2. I guess it would depend on the toxicity of it and the volume

:shrug:

[Ian David]

3. The quality of the silt depends on how polluted the river is. n/t

[Drale]

4. I'm guessing Koster is not an engineer

so how does he know how much land would be flooded?

[EmmettKelly]

5. Get the old maps out and see where the flood plains are.

There's a reason they're called flood plains, you can't pack 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb bag, that's what we've been doing with our rivers.