Conservatives Blame that the Corps Intentionally Caused the Problem

It had been recently posted from the blog American Thinker that the Corps was warned about the high water levels and did nothing about it. The funny thing is the information was not sent ,to Corps, but to the American Water Works Association (AWWA) a non governmental organisation with no connection with the Corps. Brad Lawrence South Dakota WARN chair quoted in the Capital Journal,  said,

 "although he did not send that information to the Corps, he finds it "hard to believe that it wouldn’t have gotten passed on to the Corps." 

Meaning he did not send the information to the Corps.The Corps did not receive his information or concerns Which means it did not get sent to the District Office in Omaha for Corps planners follow up Lawrence's concerns. Did the Corps probably know that it was going to flood yes, but people have to remember that the Corps have to take care of the entire basin. This is why they did not have a Spring Pulse. A Spring Pulse is done to mimic Spring flooding to help jump start the wildlife to go through their Spring routine. The Corps did not have that this year due to the excess of water downstream and the threat of flooding. 



The key question of the argument is was the flooding in Dakota Dunes, Ft. Pierre, and Pierre preventable.  Yes, the flood was entirely preventable in South Dakota. The catch is that it would have taken out Eppley Field in Omaha, part of the Industrial district in Kansas City, parts of St. Louis, and would have flooded the already damaged city of New Orleans. Which would have had a greater impact on the national economy. What was done a cost benefit analysis. 


If you look at what the Conservative blogs cite as their source for their argument, comes from e-mails sent to the AWWA on February 3rd 2011. If my memory serves me correctly there was ice still on the main stem reservoirs. So the release of water then would have created ice jams, ice jams are dams created by ice when water pushes ice into a dam like structure example would be Vermillion 1881 flood. This would have caused flooding in South Dakota


Another point they forget is the Missouri flows into the Mississippi. Tributaries on the Mississippi usually flood before the snow pack on the Missouri River tributaries can melt. So in March lets say, when maybe ice was gone not to cause damage with the release of water we could have lowered the reservoirs. The problem with that is that they would have had to contend with the run off from the Ohio River and Tennessee River and it would have overloaded the system then. 


The dams did their jobs they held off the water so people could evacuate and build levees. There were no deaths due to the flooding, and farmers did not loose massive amounts of livestock. The Missouri River is not a easily controllable river and the Corps are doing the best they can. If any of you readers have ideas please please post them and let's discuss them.


P.S. Dr. Schneiders is blogging about this topic also. You and find his postings on http://ecointheknow.com/news/. If your in the Sioux City area on Sunday the 26th of June Dr. Schneiders will be giving a lecture hosted by the Betty Strong Encounter Center, the presentation is titled, “The Last Great Deluge: Siouxland, the Missouri River and the Epic Flood of 1952.