U.S. Rep. Jason Smith's visit earlier this week to view flood damage in the Bootheel left the congressman no doubt a controversial project designed to stop the Mississippi River from inundating Southeast Missouri's St. Johns Bayou and farmland in the New Madrid Floodway needs to go forward, despite some recent pushback from environmental groups and lawmakers in neighboring states.

"These floods continue to be worse and worse, and a project that was authorized by Congress over 50 years ago still hasn't been completed," Smith, R-Salem, said in a recent interview. "The reason why is that without a doubt, it has been hijacked by the environmentalists and bureaucrats in Washington."

The project, supervised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would close a 1,500-foot gap in the Mississippi River levee system, add pumping stations in the New Madrid Floodway and St. Johns Bayou and modify miles of ditches in the bayou basin.

The project would create flood control for areas of New Madrid, Mississippi and Scott counties and allow farming on lands that currently can't be planted.

Rep. Jason Smith

Smith's concerns with the stalled project echo the decades-long fight of Missouri lawmakers, including his predecessor, Jo Ann Emerson, and former U.S. senators such as Kit Bond and Jim Talent, for the Corps finally to complete infrastructure work in the floodway. Congress originally authorized the whole floodway project as part of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project in 1928 and in 1954 approved the construction of a new levee to close the 1,500-foot gap.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, late last month joined interests calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to veto the $165 million project under a section of the Clean Water Act.

In a letter to the EPA and the Council on Environmental Quality, Durbin pointed to multiple government agency reviews that cite hazards posed to wildlife in the project area's existing natural wetlands and the belief of local community representatives the project will exacerbate the risks to flood-prone communities in Illinois.

"The Army Corps of Engineers' own independent external peer review panel put these impacts in chilling perspective when it concluded that the project would be the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for the river's long-term health and sustainability," Durbin wrote in the letter. "By promoting increased agricultural development in the New Madrid Floodway, the project will also intensify the already substantial opposition to using the floodway for its intended purpose of diverting flood waters away from river communities during major floods. Cairo and other Illinois communities are at particular risk."

Durbin previously hasn't opposed the project, but his office has received numerous letters from local and state officials of Illinois and others requesting help stopping it from moving forward. Those letters prompted Durbin to contact the Corps officials with concerns.

In the July letter to the EPA, Durbin pointed to millions of dollars in damages in Southern Illinois he said were created by a delay in the Corps' 2011 decision to blow the levee during near-record flooding levels on the Mississippi River.

The detonation filled the floodway, as intended by its design, and lowered water levels in Illinois and Kentucky.

Smith contends the floodway can be used in future major flood events as it was in the past when the gap, which is south of the 2011 blast site, is filled.

"They're trying to make this a Southeast Missouri versus Cairo, Illinois, versus Hickman, Kentucky, thing, and that's not it," he said. "The Corps has stated numerous times that closing the gap is not going to affect Cairo or Hickman, and it's not going to affect the floodway project and how they would activate the levees."

Other efforts to see the floodway project move ahead include U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt's addition of language in a federal agency spending bill directing the EPA not to veto the project. The project likely will be addressed at an upcoming public meeting of the Corps planned for Aug. 14 in Cape Girardeau.

In March, Corps officials who sit on the Mississippi River Commission heard testimony covering economic benefits and flood protection from several project supporters during a New Madrid, Missouri, stop on the commission's high-water inspection trip, including from Riley James, who serves as president of the St. John's Levee Board. James on Tuesday gave Smith a tour of flood-damaged areas. The commission will stop in Cape Girardeau on its annual low-water inspection trip.

eragan@semissourian.com

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