However, this is not a time for those who live along the river or use the river to be complacent.
Corps studying changes
How Missouri River water is released and for what purposes is being discussed as the corps looks at additional “adaptive management” opportunities, which could mean future changes in its authoritative Master Manual.
“Adaptive management” is a fluid theory for adjusting how the federal agency is going to run the water in the Missouri River, said Kathy Holstine, Holt County clerk, a board member for the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association and a local government representative to the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee.
This year, during three Recovery Implementation Committee meetings, “adaptive management” has been a subject that the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are urging the committee approve, said Ken Reeder, a Missouri River user and a voting member on the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee.
One could say the two agencies are a “mutual admiration society,” said William Beacom, a veteran commercial river pilot.
Endangered no more?
Mr. Reeder said with each Recovery Implementation Committee meeting he’s more and more concerned about the whole idea of adaptive management.
The problem is they’re not providing the committee with enough information to act, Mr. Beacom said.
“We’ve asked for specific information and they won’t give it to us,” he said.
Below the Gavins Point Dam, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to see 80 acres of sandbars per river mile. It also has proposals for areas along the upper reaches of the Missouri River.
The corps wants to use “adaptive management” for habitat creation in meeting this Fish and Wildlife goal. The corps believes it will benefit the population for the Least Turn and the northern Great Plains Piping Plover.
One alternative solution being talked about was having a five-week period where the corps would release 65,000 cubic feet per second from Gavins Point.
The corps as well as Fish and Wildlife have been so successful that the Least Turn is about to be de-listed off the Endangered Spices list, Mr. Beacom said.
And the Piping Plover will probably come off this list in late 2016 or early 2017, Mr. Reeder said.
Fears for navigation
So it’s been suggested to do the pulses in the fall and spring combined with a low summer flow.
“The information I’ve received is that Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee told the corps there’s no support for those pulses,” said Lucy Fletcher, business development manager for AGRI Services of Brunswick, Mo.
People are concerned that the corps as well as Fish and Wildlife have offered pulses as an alternative solution.
The pulses would be at the worst time for farmers, Mr. Reeder said. They’re planting in the spring and it’s harvest time in the fall, Mr. Reeder noted.
“There’s no evidence spring pulses are working,” he said. “I don’t mind talking about it, but I believe it’s being forced upon the Recovery Implementation Committee.”
And high water at that time, even if it didn’t overflow the levees, would raise the ground water level, which could also be disastrous for farmers, Ms. Holstine said.
“And, if adopted, it would totally destroy navigation below Gavins Point,” Ms. Holstine said.
But there’s another fundamental problem with creating sandbars on the lower Missouri River below Gavins Point.
“Where’s the sand going to come from?” Steve Engemann, president of Herman Sand & Gravel and a boat captain who sails up and down the river from below Gavins Point to St. Louis said. “There will be no sediment coming over the dam. And it’s a waste of water if you don’t use it respectfully.”
Local port needs water
St. Joseph also has a problem with this particular piece of “adaptive management.”
The five-week pulse in the spring and fall with a low water release in the summer means the St. Joseph port would be threatened, Mr. Reeder said.
There is an alternative that could be positive and gain support from the Recovery Implementation Committee.
One of the alternatives might be to consider developing an off-channel habitat for the birds, Ms. Fletcher said. And an off-channel solution wouldn’t require sand bars, she said.
One thing is sure, the Corps will be moving forward with its alternatives, however, to formally adopt the changes will require opening the Master Manual, Ms. Holstine said. If they are adopted, it could mean the corps setting aside flood control on the lower Missouri River as a priority or reducing that priority, Ms. Holstine said.
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©2015 the St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.)
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