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Missouri River management plan for 2012 released

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January 6th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers says it is trying to improve the way it manages the Missouri River’s reservoirs after last year’s historic flooding, but the 2012 plan released today (Friday), doesn’t include any additional flood-storage space. The corps has been criticized by people living all along the river because of the way it managed last year’s flood that caused $630 million damage to flood-control structures and covered hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland along the 2,341-mile-long river for months. The corps said it tried to address some concerns by promising to improve communication and react swiftly to signs of high runoff, but officials say there wasn’t time to clear more space than normal in the reservoirs. Officials say the levees, dams and channels along the river remain vulnerable going into 2012 because many more repairs are needed. Still, the corps said there is only a 10 percent chance that the amount of water flowing into the Missouri River from melting snow and rainfall this year will exceed the amount the plan can handle.

Last year, the corps had to release massive amounts of water from the six dams along the river all summer to deal with unexpectedly heavy spring rains and above-average mountain snowpack. That caused flooding that began in June and continued well into the fall in some places. A report from outside experts released last month said the corps did the best it could to deal with last year’s record flooding, but the panel recommended several changes that could prevent a disastrous repeat.

The corps said it has already started implementing some of those recommendations, including updating the hydrologic studies it uses. But the corps says many of the suggestions require either detailed study or additional funding, so they couldn’t be implemented right away. The corps said that if it gets any sign of heavy runoff in 2012 it will try to aggressively release water. And the corps said it will try to improve communication by holding conference calls twice a month.