Mississippi River Floods and Ground Hog Day
 It's
that time of year again. The news is full of record Mississippi River flood
crestings. This year the focus is down river. Other years it's been the Upper
Miss. Regardless of the river section, there’s an annual set of competing
forces: Will the river win? Will the people or the land win? Who will suffer
more and who will be affected less by the rising water? This seasonal ritual has
elements of that old movie
Ground Hog
Day.
Every year we witness the same story. The snow melts,
the water rises and the Mississippi River finds new ways to make its way to the
Gulf of Mexico. Some years - and this is one of them - are worse than others.
Essentially it goes like this: millions of dollars are spent every year on
sandbags, dams and/or levy explosions. We never seem to get ahead of the issue
to find whole-river-system approaches to this increasingly expensive and humanly
tragic national spring experience. Solutions aren't evident or easy. But does
that mean we need to be trapped in the hydrological equivalent of Ground Hog
Day?
It's time for us to acknowledge, administratively and policy-wise,
what scientists have told us for some time: the Mississippi River is a whole
watershed system and we should be planning and anticipating action that treats
it as such, especially when it comes to flood management.
Unfortunately
our advanced knowledge of the Mississippi River as a water system isn't matched
by an equally modern administrative policy structure. We find ourselves trapped
in a decision-making model based on geography and engineering parameters set in
place nearly a century ago. We still make decisions based on events in one or
two locations or on river engineering principles, rather than holistic
water-system approaches.
As long ago as 1935,
Frank Thone wrote in the Science News-Letter about a brave
new future that would call for bold and broad national approaches to water. He
was responding to the Mississippi River floods of 1927, blogger and hydrologist
Matt Garcia writes in
Hydro-Logic. Thone wrote then, "Out in front of the rest of
us, there are pioneers of larger cooperation, who [ ] have evolved the
beginnings of a full-sized national scheme for making the most of our national
resources in water." He continued, "For a 'sample river' to use in drawing up
their first model plan they chose boldly - no less than the Mississippi system
itself…." He would cringe to see we haven't made good on those visions yet.
It doesn't have to be this way. Just as democracy in the world is teaching
us there are different ways to make decisions as nations, we have new technology
we could use to address the whole Mississippi River watershed. We could
anticipate action in an overall context, instead of as it comes down the river
in the spring. We could create a
blue print
for flood plain management and then take action within a context that addressed
the whole river. Most importantly, we could come up with new ideas based on the
input of people
- both expert and non-expert together - who live along the river and actually do
the sandbagging, live with the flooding, and have their livelihoods impacted.
Just as Phil Connors finally realizes in the movie Ground Hog Day, it's
time we re-examine the way we've always done things. In the case of
America's Great River,
it's time we come up with new approaches instead of reliving the same disasters
every spring. And, it's time we tapped the technology of the internet and the
people of the River to find approaches to match the greatness of the
Mississippi.
Please
comment on our Facebook page.
For Some Historical Perspective… On Mississippi River floods,
check out
http://mississippivalleytraveler.com/floods-along-the-mississippi-river/
Waters of the United States
  Last month,
U.S. Environmental Protection and Army Corps of Engineers announced in Milwaukee
their development of a draft guidance for determining whether a water body,
waterway, or wetland is protected by the Clean Water Act. They're now looking
for comment over the next 60 days or so. The draft is intended to giver clearer,
more predictable guidelines. Those who share our interest in whole Mississippi
River approaches should go to
http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/wetlands/CWAwaters.cfm to comment.
And the Winner Is…..
 We heartily congratulate the
National Great Rivers
Research and Education Center on its selection by the Clean Water
America Alliance as one of the recipients of this year's
United States Water Prize. The Water Prize honors individuals,
institutions and organizations that are making outstanding advancements in the
realm of sustainable water solutions. Congrats go to
Dr. Dale Chapman,
chair of NGRREC and an America's Waterway board member,
Dr. Rip Sparks,
director of research for NGRREC and all the NGRREC people who so ably address
water sustainability issues through their Misssissippi River-based laboratory and
programs.
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