Jim, Great LTE!  Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Redmond <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:13:06 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Sioux city journal letter to editor

My letter to the editor appeared in today's Sioux City Journal.  While analyzing the Independent Review Panel report as Michael and Caroline have been doing is a great source of strategies, we must point out the narrowness of this report and the need for once more funding the Authorized Purposes Study and Ecosystem Restoration Study.



A small group of people wants to use the flood as an excuse to use federal funds to put the faulty channel back in place.  They are also wasting the work of the congressionally-mandated Recovery Committee.



Jim





SIOUX CITY - The Missouri River barge channel is not a disaster waiting to happen. It's the disaster that happened in 2011. By designing a narrow channel with limited capacity and limited access to the floodplain, the engineers of the 1960s and '70s left Iowa and other states vulnerable to high flows.

Even upstream of Ponca, Neb., the high flows did not mean widespread suffering as we saw in our segment of the river. The river channel in the 59-mile stretch of the Missouri National Recreational River was able to absorb flows of 160,000 cubic  feet per second because the channel was naturally wider and the water found its floodplain. Disruption was minimal.

The wing dikes, revetments and other controlling structures of the barge channel were not designed for a wide enough river channel and connection to the floodplain. Surprising isn't it that the segment just downstream of Gavins Point Dam could handle the high flows and the segments south of Ponca and Sioux City spread out once the barge channel hit capacity?

The Missouri River barge channel has not just proven it is an economic failure; 2011 proved it an engineering failure as well. Citizens and economic developers are not going to be satisfied with an independent review of the Army Corps management of the river. A new master plan for the river has to respond to the weaknesses in the system created back in the 1940s. Is any business going to ignore the flood's lessons and build along the river without a thorough revamping of the longest river in America?

Basin governors and congressional delegations have the responsibility for demanding a complete analysis of the 2011 flood, not an absolution from a small panel of experts. - Jim Redmond

Copyright 2012 Sioux City Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/app/terms/>


Read more: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-report-from-flood-panel-isn-t-enough/article_226da6ba-840d-5f25-a209-12fba276c6ab.html?mode=story#ixzz1j1pHidFW

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp