For Immediate Release,
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COMMISSION SUPPORTS RIVER STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS
The Mississippi River Citizen Commission voted Wednesday to
support the recommendations of the Corps of Engineers Upper Mississippi River
Feasibility Study and called on Congress to fund environmental and navigation
improvements of the
The Commission challenge came as the Corps of Engineers is completing
its twelve-year study, which recommends $2.4 billion worth of improvements to
an aging navigation system and $5.3 billion for environmental improvements.
Simultaneously, in
Some critics of the study have urged delaying implementing recommendations until better methodology for predicting future traffic on the river can be developed. “The keys to good decision making from here” argued Commissioner Bill Burke “are not in more refined forecasting of agricultural exports or in a more refined plan for environmental enhancements. They are in acting through adaptive management on what has already been made clear.”
Others critics have urged that the environmental component prioritize restoration of natural processes. “Natural processes are happening all the time,” said Commissioner Marc Schultz. “But the truth is that this is not a natural, free-flowing river, but rather a series of pools. We are not going to undo that. We need to WORK WITH natural processes to restore environmental integrity to a multi-purpose river.”
The Commission endorsed granting the Corps of Engineers dual
authority to manage simultaneously for both navigation and the environment and
using adaptive management to provide greater flexibility to implement new
technologies and to deal with emerging issues, such as invasive plants and
animals and the impact of
The Commission also recommended that the public involvement mechanisms and the processes for project selection currently used by the Environmental Management Program and channel maintenance be carried forward into the new program. “The National Academy of Science is useful for overall review but should not be involved with project ranking and the project selection process already demonstrated as effective for the EMP, which builds on the experience and cumulative knowledge of the river agencies and the research of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program,” commented Commissioner Robin Grawe. “If we want to improve project selection and evaluation from here, we ought to fully fund the LTRMP.”
The Commission also called on Congress to fund the Environmental Management Program at the Presidential budget level of $28 million. The highly successful program has been forced to backlog numerous habitat rehabilitation projects and trim its research and monitoring component to the bone in order to work with skeleton budgets. “When shoestring budgets prohibit data collection, that information is lost forever,” noted Commissioner John Wetzel. “With invasive species fast-approaching the Upper Miss, this is no time to turn our backs on this great river.”
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