A `WEEK LINK'; BOND: REGION'S LEVEES ARE IN NEED OF UPGRADES

U.S. Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson are urging improvements on Mississippi River levees in Southeast Missouri.

Bond (R-Mo.) was in the area Friday for a "fly-around" to tour levees in Scott, Mississippi and New Madrid counties.

Bond was joined on the assessment tour by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District Engineer Col. Gregory G. Bean and Mississippi River Commission director R. D. James.

During the aerial tour, which started at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, Bond met with local officials during stops at the Drinkwater Pumping Station northeast of Charleston and the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, during a stop at Hunter-Dawson City park in New Madrid.

On hand at the Charleston meeting were Buffalo Bend Flood Control Association and Levee District #3 officials to discuss the ongoing reforestation efforts in that district.

Lester Goodin, president of the Buffalo Bend group, and a member of Levee #3 Board, was also present during a press conference, held at the Cape Girardeau airport. Also present at the airport meeting were Lloyd Smith of Rep. Emerson's office, Missouri State. Sen. Peter Kinder and Eddie Belk, project manager for the Bird's Point-New Madrid and St. John's Levee and Drainage District flood control project.

In November, Bond and a number of other U.S. senators wrote President Bill Clinton urging completion of the 2,000-mile Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MRT), which was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1928.

Currently, 354 miles of levees along the main stem of the Mississippi River are below the required grade and are subject to "overtopping" during a major flood, including some in Missouri.

President Clinton wants to cut more than $44 million from the Corps of Engineers' budget for levee and drainage projects along the river and its tributaries.

The MRT project, from Cape Girardeau to New Orleans, includes channelization along the Mississippi and its tributaries.

More recently, Bond and Rep. Emerson urged the Corps of Engineers to make improvements to the levee from Commerce to Birds Point, a critical point on the Mississippi River protecting the Bootheel.

Bond and Emerson are also working with the St. Johns Levee and Drainage District to keep improvements on track for the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, a project scheduled to get under this year.

When completed, the Birds Point-New Madrid-St. John's project will significantly improve flooding problems in three counties -- New Madrid, Mississippi and Scott County, said Bond.

Work is already under way on the Birds Point-New Madrid project, said Bean.

The project, said Bean, includes about 27 miles of channelization, two pumping station and a 1,500-foot levee closure in the St. John's area.

The $48 million project will be completed in phases, said Bean. Work will continue in the Bird's Point-New Madrid area through 1998, in the St. John's area in 1999, with the final river closure in the year 2000.

Bond, U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft and Emerson issued statements, via letters, calling for levee improvements during the recent Mississippi River Commission public hearing, held aboard the Corps of Engineers' motor vessel Mississippi at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port near Scott City.

The legislators said in their statements that the levee from Commerce to Birds Point is a weak link that has been weakened further by federally funded improvements to the Len Small Levee on the Illinois side of the river.

If this weak link fails, all the communities of Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Dunklin counties in Missouri will be affected, the statements said.

The legislators say the federal government should pay the entire cost of raising and shoring up the earthen levee and in constructing relief wells, and that "the time for action is now."