As some of you may know, Iowa DNR is holding virtual meetings this week to
gather stakeholder input on flood control and mitigation in the lower
Missouri River Basin. This is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
(USACE) planning assistance to states (PAS) process. USACE offices in Omaha
and Kansas City are working with state officials in Nebraska, Kansas,
Missouri, and Iowa to identify areas along the lower Missouri River to
prioritize for flood risk reduction and flood management projects. The
study and resulting plan will be presented to USACE for future project
prioritization.



IDNR will host 3 webinars via Zoom:

·         Tuesday, July 28, 1-3 PM

·         Wednesday, July 29, 9-11 AM

·         Thursday, July 30, 6-8 PM

Each webinar will follow the same agenda and format. *Click here for
meeting and Zoom connection information. <https://www.iowadnr.gov/simra>*



We encourage you and other stakeholders (not only those living and working
in affected areas but organizations and groups that have an interest in
conservation, climate and community resilience, and natural approaches to
flood mitigation) to attend these meetings. Even if you don’t live or work
along the Missouri River, all taxpayers are impacted by how the river is
managed. It’s important that the folks leading the planning process hear
support for natural infrastructure solutions such as floodplain
reconnection, wetland restoration, and levee setbacks as solutions to
flooding along the lower Missouri River.



A few key points to consider or present at the meetings:

·         Natural infrastructure
<https://1mississippi.org/importance-of-floodplains-and-wetlands/> (i.e.
floodplain reconnection, wetland restoration, and levee setbacks) can
provide flood protection by holding water that has overflown a river’s
banks. They protect lives and livelihoods of nearby communities by holding
great amounts of water. They are an effective line of defense and
underutilized among the tools in the flood management toolbox.

·         DNR should analyze and propose specific places where natural
infrastructure will have the greatest flood risk reduction impact. The
Nature Conservancy’s Floodplain Prioritization Tool is a good resource.

·         Wetlands and floodplains act as “safety valves” that not only
store floodwater, but also create wildlife habitat, improve water quality,
and increase recreation opportunities.

·         USACE and state agencies should think about resilience to future
flooding in the context of climate change. Natural infrastructure increases
system resilience to greater precipitation and extreme weather events by
retaining water and reducing flood velocities.

·         Flooding is an equity issue. More often than not, under-resourced
communities (particularly communities that can't afford to keep raising
levees higher) take the worst of the damage from flooding. Continuing to
build more conventional infrastructure (such as levees and floodwalls) that
by design push water downstream will only continue the cycle of destructive
flooding events in the future and put vulnerable, under-resourced
communities at increased risk of flooding.

·         In addition to local business and agricultural interests,
hydrologists, geologists, and other scientists should be included in the
process to share latest research on flooding and flood mitigation.

Examples/Cases:

·         Restoring natural infrastructure is a form of disaster
mitigation. Places along the Missouri River like the Big Muddy Refuge or
the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area are keeping high water from further
inundating vulnerable communities down river.

·         A study of the Upper Mississippi River found that restoring the
100-year flood zone of the Upper Mississippi watershed could store 39
million acre-feet of floodwater, the volume that caused the Great Flood of
1993, and save over $16 billion in projected flood damage costs.

·         In Illinois*, *a 2014 study conducted for the Chicago Wilderness
Green Infrastructure Vision, found that natural systems are the least
costly and most efficient way to control flooding. Wetlands in the
seven-county Chicago metropolitan area provide an average $22,000 of
benefits per acre each year in water flow regulation. This study also found
that watersheds with 30% wetland or lake areas saw flood peaks that were 60
to 80% lower than watersheds without such coverage, and that preventing
building in floodplain areas could save an average of $900 per acre per
year in flood damages.

·         The increased conveyance of flood water is also contributing to
huge nutrient pollution problems in states in the Lower Mississippi River
basin and the Gulf. Toxic algal blooms that have shut down fisheries
operations, closed beaches, and even killed pets. Floodplain restoration
and wetlands also filter nutrients and provide water quality benefits.



This is the beginning of a lengthy process of evaluating flood mitigation
along the lower Missouri River. After the states hold stakeholder meetings,
the results of the study will be released and public comment will be
available at that point. After the study and plan are approved, specific
flood mitigation projects will be proposed and a NEPA process followed for
each project. There will also be legislation to fund such projects. So this
is not the last opportunity to be heard, but it is imperative that natural
infrastructure approaches be included in the study and planning process.
Advocating for natural infrastructure at this point lays the groundwork for
proposing some priority funding legislation for floodplain connections and
wildlife habitat as part of flood reduction strategies.

-- 

*Debbie Neustadt *


*Des Moines, Iowa*

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