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River users object to Missouri River flow levels
By VICKI BENNINGTON

   A biological opinion issued recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has spurred ongoing debates concerning management of the Missouri River.

   Paul Johnston, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Neb., said the debate deals mainly with flow management. Released in December, the amendment to the original 2000 biological opinion issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service laid out prescriptive flow schemes for the Missouri River.

   The terms in the opinion call for the system of reservoirs along the river to limit releases during the summer months to 25,000 cubic feet per second, an average reduction of about 7,600 cfs from Gavins Point Dam.

   This lower flow would help provide shallow water habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon, according to Fish and Wildlife. Conservation benefits for the pallid sturgeon, as well as the threatened piping plover and the endangered least tern, are at the heart of the opinion.

   Johnston said the other side of the argument is that the release amount will not provide sufficient water for the minimum navigation flows downstream. The commercial navigation channel on the Missouri Rivers runs 734 miles from Sioux City, Iowa to the Mississippi River.

   "As a consequence of the lower releases, some operators have said they probably will not work on the Missouri this year," Johnston said.

   Power companies along the river that use river water for cooling have also expressed concern about the lower summer flow.

   "Their concern is that lower flows could put them in a position of violating their water quality permits during very hot times of the year," Johnston said.

   Most states issue permits to the utilities that deal with the temperature of discharged water, he said. The more water there is in the river, the quicker the dilution. If there is less water, then the river temperature is going to increase and not be able to accept more heat.

   "There are also two nuclear power plants that have regulations that are established by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency on the temperature of the water they take into the plant. They're very concerned about the lower summer flow, too," Johnston added.

   In addition, the December 2003 biological opinion calls for increased releases in the spring; that is causing consternation for bottomland farmers along the Missouri who are concerned about lowland flooding.

   "We have heard from congressional delegations and governors up and down the river, from Illinois to Louisiana, who are concerned that the low summer flows in times of drought are going to have a profound impact on Mississippi River navigation, too," Johnston said. "In an average year, the Missouri River provides about 45 percent of the flow of the Mississippi past St. Louis. During times of drought, that contribution could rise to as much as 70 percent.

   "If we start hindering Mississippi River traffic, or if operators have to load light or reduce the size of tows, we're talking about millions of dollars per day," he said.

   Currently, six pending lawsuits have been consolidated in the Federal District Court of Minnesota, filed by various interest groups, Johnston said.

   "The early rulings have been on both sides of the issue," he said. "In North Dakota, a motion has been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court for resolution." The Flood Control Act of 1944 authorized the dams and reservoirs built on the Missouri River, along with other tributary dams.

   "The Corps of Engineers has a ruling from the 8th Circuit Court that says we have an obligation to follow the Flood Control Act until we change our Master Water Control Manual that states flood control and navigation have dominance over the other authorized purposes," Johnston said. "But we have decisions from lower courts that say the Endangered Species Act essentially trumps these other laws. We're working toward clarification."

   The Master Water Control Manual gives the Corps the basic guidelines on how to operate the Missouri River reservoirs to meet the authorized purposes. An annual operating plan is then created that takes into consideration current water conditions, such as how much water is in storage and what is expected as runoff.

   "This system of dams is the largest in the United States and can store 72 million acre feet of water," Johnston said. "That will put six inches of water on the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri."

   These reservoirs, he said, actually helped prevent more extensive flooding in the 1993 flood in the Midwest. In 1997, Johnston said, there was the largest snowmelt runoff in the 106 years Corps records have been kept, yet there was no flooding because the water was captured in the reservoirs.

   "Our estimate is that those six reservoirs have prevented more than $25 billion in damage from flooding over the years," he said.

   The six dams that make up the Missouri River Main Stem Dam System are Fort Peck Dam in Eastern Montana; the Garrison Dam in North Dakota; Oahe Dam, Big Bend Dam and Fort Randall Dam in South Dakota; and Gavins Point Dam on the South Dakota and Nebraska border.

   "The upper Missouri has been in drought for five years and the big reservoirs are down about 23 feet, so low water flow is an issue because access becomes a problem," he said. "We have an order from the court in Minnesota to present a plan in March - that's our goal."

   George Andres, special program director at the Tri-City Regional Port District in Granite City and general manager of the Kaskaskia Regional Port District in Redbud, said last summer there were several lawsuits back and forth with some groups pressing for a reduction in flow. The judge issued a decision that reduced the flow for three days.

   "When that reduced level hit the Mississippi, we ran out of water and there were reductions and actual stoppage in navigation between St. Louis and Cairo," Andres said. "It has a very dramatic impact on operations on down the line, not just along the Missouri River, but the Mississippi, too. I think it's being looked at in a microscopic way rather than in the big picture of how it affects the United States."

   There could be a dramatic, rippling effect on the economy, he said, particularly in agriculture.

   "If we can't make export grain deliveries on time to meet ships or coal delivery shipments when they're needed at power plants, there could be a huge impact," Andres said.

   Jeff Fleming, chief of the office of public affairs at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the original biological opinion in 2000 requires reinitiating consultation with the Corps if there have been new actions or information that might justify it.

   "What triggered this amendment was the designation of critical habitat for the piping plover in four Missouri River-basin states," Fleming said. "That, along with some new mortality information on the bird species, caused us to reinitiate with the Corps."

   There is a level of flexibility, however, that the agency has incorporated into its opinion, he said.

   "We believe that if the Corps follows the outline we've laid out in this amendment and the remainder of the 2000 opinion, we think we're going to make progress," Fleming said. "By using the low summer habitat flows that we are requiring for this summer, the Corps can gain some flexibility with how it deals with the low flows. But that is contingent on the development of at least 1,200 acres of shallow water habitat."

   Fleming said the Fish and Wildlife Service has been told that the outline that was proposed should not impact barge traffic.

   "The biological team that put this together consulted with a number of experts in biology, hydrology and issues relating to big river systems," he said. "One of the questions was how much water was needed to sustain barge traffic. We believe the levels we have outlined will sustain it."