Topic of levee meeting in Pike Co., Mo.
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PIKE CO., MO. -- Several years ago Congress asked the US Army Corps of Engineers to put together a comprehensive plan for the Upper Mississippi River.
That plan would include flood protection
One of the alternatives of that comprehensive plan was Plan H, which would provide 500 year flood levees for many Tri-State counties along the Mississippi River, but not all counties.
Plan H was the topic of a public meeting Wednesday, September 30th that included representatives from the Corps of Engineers and the presiding commissioners from Pike and Lincoln counties.
Under Plan H, the federal government would put 500 year levees only along parts of those counties.
KHQA's Jarod Wells spoke to those commissioners about their concerns with this plan.
Both commissioners and the public were looking for answers and a better understanding of Plan H at Wednesday's meeting.
"Right now we feel that we're a dumping ground for all the excess water coming from the northern counties of both states," said Pike County Presiding Commissioner Dan Miller.
If higher levees are built in some areas north of Pike and Lincoln Counties, a flood would send more water their way.
"If the temporary levees are breached, it could wipe out the city of Annada, it could mean major damage to downtown Clarksville. Down in Lincoln County there are 3 or 4 cities that would really take devastating blows from these floods," said Miller.
"It'd be devastating. Our levee's are not to that grade today. We've seen it over the past several floods how it has broke levees and come over the levees and affecting our county. It'd just be unreal how terrible that would be," said Lincoln County Presiding Commissioner Sean O'Brien.
"Our south Pike County had a devastating blow last year during the flood and we want to make sure that we're allowed to raise our levee's to a 500 year plain like all the rest of the counties up and down the Mississippi," said Miller.
"I appreciate that they're wanting to raise some of our levee's to the 500 year, it's nice that they're going through the effort to do that. Let's go a step farther. I realize it's going to cost some money, but in the end it's going to save us a lot, a lot of money," said O'Brien.
Now we also spoke with a representative from the Corps of Engineers.
He told us any county can get a 500 year flood levee, it's just a matter of if the federal government will help pay for it.
In all the plans the corps looked at, the costs outweighed the benefits of putting a 500 year levee in some areas along the river.
That's why not all counties would get 500 year protection.
But Chief of Engineering Construction for the Corps Saint Louis District David Busse says the corps did not recommend Plan H to Congress.
"That's where we are today, Congress asked us to look at it, we've looked at it. We said the benefits are less than the costs, the costs are more. So we gave a negative recommendation. No, it's not economically justified," said Busse.
Here's our video footage of this story:
