Vowing that "I'm done sugar-coating it," Sen. Julie Slama of Peru is calling upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make flood control a top priority in the Missouri River Basin.Â
Slama has introduced a legislative resolution urging Congress and the Corps to "prioritize flood control over fish and wildlife" as her town and other Missouri River communities, along with neighboring farmers, approach the one-year anniversary of the devastating flooding that caused more than $1 billion in damage in Nebraska last March.
The District 1 state senator has been outspoken on Twitter and Facebook, at one point sending a message to the Corps to "do your job."
Reacting to Slama's most recent challenge to the Corps, Gov. Pete Ricketts said that juggling multiple priorities has distracted the Corps from "putting people and property first" in recent years.
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"Our partnership with surrounding states will help us identify the steps we need to take to ensure the Corps protects our communities and prevents the kind of flooding we experienced in 2019," the governor said in an emailed statement.Â
Ricketts and the governors of Iowa, Kansas and Missouri recently signed a memorandum of agreement to continue working together on the issue.
"Moving forward, we want to see people and communities put first when managing the Missouri River," Ricketts said in outlining the agreement in a news release last week.
Meanwhile, the Corps has spoken of plans to launch a study of the Missouri River and its tributaries from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis in an effort to identify ways to reduce future flood risks and improve infrastructure.
Slama said she doesn't want to wait for years of study to see action.
"It's the Corps' job to do it," she said during an interview in the legislative chamber. "They should have ordered a study after the 2011 flooding. We don't have years to wait."
Slama said the Corps might need to reconsider some of its decision-making in determining release of water from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota that flows downstream along with the possible need for new or improved infrastructure along the river.
River bank repair is needed now, she said.
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is systematically failing to control the Missouri River," Slama wrote on Twitter.
"The Corps has had a decade to address flooding, and now states have to hold their hand for them to do it," she wrote. "Unacceptable."
Each flood is "a hit to local economies, destroys roads and forces an outward migration from impacted communities," Slama stated.
"There's a sense of apathy amongst those with the power to do something, so it's up to us to refuse to accept this as 'the new normal.'"
Slama's legislative resolution (LR288), which has been referred to the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee, states that "it is imperative that flood control be a top priority" in management of the Missouri River.
"Ten months after flooding began, our states are still working to recover and rebuild because of the historic scale of the natural disaster," Ricketts noted in announcing continuing efforts by the four Missouri River Basin governors to band together and seek action now.
In discussing plans to survey needs along the Lower Missouri River System several months ago, Corps officials said a study could take three to five years.
Meanwhile, with another March approaching, the stage is set for another season of flooding.
The National Weather Service reports "well-above-normal rain and snowfall" in the Missouri River Basin in recent months.
Last year was the third-wettest year in 124 years of modern record-keeping.
And that suggests the approach of "a significant spring flood season in the Missouri Basin," the High Plains Regional Climate Center reports.Â