County Officials Push Back Against Comprehensive Flood-Mitigation Plan H

elected officials on Wednesday updated residents on efforts to push back against a proposed plan to manage flooding along the Upper Mississippi River Valley between Minnesota and Missouri. 

The plan, which was presented to Congress by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would raise most of the levees along the Upper Mississippi River Valley to a level that would protect against a flood with a 0.2 percent chance of occurring in a given year.

But levees in St. Charles, Lincoln and Pike counties would not be raised, instead property owners would be targeted for buyouts. 

State Sen. Tom Dempsey told attendees on Wednesday that he led efforts at the state level to pass resolutions formally opposing Plan H and added he believes that "Missouri needs to be treated fairly and not be the dumping ground for everyone else's water."

Congress charged the U.S. Corps of Engineers with creating a comprehensive plan to manage the Upper Mississippi River Valley watershed in 1999, said Hal Graef, a project manager for the St. Louis U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Research began in 2003 and a report, finalized in 2008, investigated 14 different alternatives. 

Plan H, which would raise most of the levees to protect against a 500-year flood, was deemed the best performing of the different alternatives. 

Graef said the Corps of Engineers is hearing from two groups of people, those who are tired of waiting for Plan H to be implemented and those who want to slow down on Plan H and look for other solutions. 

"We're hearing loud and clear Plan H is not it," he said. "Now what do we do, where do we go? ... This is not going to be the Corps of Engineers saying 'Here's the plan, take it or leave it.' It's going to be with the concurrence of states. The governors have to agree with this."

Jim Mitas, an aide for Sen. Todd Akin's office, said Plan H is essentially off the table now. Currently, there is no funding available to work on the Upper Mississippi River Valley Comprehensive Plan.

Maj. Gen. John W. Peabody, Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, wrote a letter to Akin dated May 18, 2012 which said that if the project were funded, the next step would be to find consensus between Illinois, Iowa and Missouri on evaluating and managing flood risks. 

Local residents believe there should be some sort of comprehensive plan in place. Dawn Boerding, a farmer in Orchard Farm, said if Plan H were adopted, "We'd flood every four years," she said.

Elected officials in Pike, Lincoln and St. Charles County have been meeting since in 2009 organize and fight the adoption of Plan H. They said their efforts are not over yet. 

"We were pretty strong in opposing Plan H and we got to where we are now," said Danny Miller, Pike County Commissioner. "We're very pleased with the outcome so far, we just need to keep the pressure on."