Things have been pretty quiet on the Missouri River lately, so thought I
would pass along today's lead editorial in the Omaha World-Herald.

Omaha World-Herald editorial
September 16, 2002

More delay on the Mo

Army Corps of Engineers may miss another management plan deadline

Some troubling information has surfaced indicating that the Army Corps of
Engineers may brush off yet another deadline for its Missouri River
management plan.

The plan has already been more than a dozen years in the making. The corps
had said it would decide last May. That disappeared in a fog of uncertainty.
In July, David Fastabend, the corps' northwestern division commander, said
final-decision time was October. The Bush administration tried to sidetrack
the thing for five years, but that policy apparently never became official.
At least, it was never acknowledged publicly.

It seems more plausible every day, though. The latest: Officials at the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, negotiating with the corps over environmental
changes it wants in the way upstream dams operate, told an environmental
reporter that the time frame has been pushed back again, to December and
beyond.

The problem: The corps has always managed the river to benefit navigation,
agriculture and power production, with little regard for recreation and next
to no concern for the ecosystem. That's not adequate in the 21st century,
though, and the revised plan will have to reflect modern concerns.
Environmental groups have threatened to sue to see that it does.

This year, Fish and Wildlife issued a recommendation that the corps
implement a spring-rise, summer-low flow from its dams on the upper
Missouri, setting a March 2003 deadline. The changes were strongly opposed
by Missouri officials, agricultural interests and the barge industry, which
depends on the corps to release enough water to float its boats all summer.

But the Fish and Wildlife recommendation, which warned that the river's
endangered species would be harmed if the changes were delayed, was built on
federal law and has considerable force behind it. The corps is now trying to
convince the environmental agency to change its recommendation.

If, indeed, the consultations have delayed decision-making until next year,
the corps couldn't meet the March deadline in any case.

The sensible course is for the corps to better balance all of the interests
at odds on the Missouri. Recreation, power, navigation, agriculture, the
environment. They all have a place. But delay after delay after delay, while
the river is managed as it has always been, can cause irreparable harm.

The longer the delay, the worse for the Mo.

Visit www.SaveTheMissouri.org to help the Missouri River!

Chad Smith, Director
Nebraska Field Office - American Rivers
Mill Towne Building
650 J Street, Suite 400
Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
402-477-7910
402-477-2565 (FAX)
402-730-5593 (CELLULAR)
[log in to unmask]


Erin E. Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]