COUNCIL BLUFFS — Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) is raising significant concerns over unnecessary delays of critical levee repairs along the Missouri River, repairs that would help protect Iowans in the southwest corner of the state that she represents in Congress. Her office says in a letter sent today (Wednesday) to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and key officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Axne raised concerns about delays in repairs to the Coulthard Levee, which runs through the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in Harrison County.

Repairs to the Coulthard Levee have faced obstacles from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, causing delays that – if not completed by next spring – could devastate homes, businesses, and acres of farmland south of the Levee in Harrison and Pottawattamie Counties. Axne’s letter said “We cannot allow bureaucratic red tape to stand in the way of Iowans protecting their communities from future flooding Two and a half years since the flooding along the Missouri River, Iowans are still rebuilding and working to protect their communities from future devastation and I’m greatly concerned about the delays with the Coulthard Levee in Southwest Iowa.”

Rep. Axne requested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service work promptly with the Coulthard Levee District to allow the levee to be repaired. Axne also highlighted that the levee district has received a grant from the State of Iowa to help fund the repairs which expires at the end of this year. Last year, Axne introduced bipartisan legislation to provide the Army Corps with new authority to cut through red tape and provide federal funds for levees in repeated flooding communities such as Hamburg. That legislation was adapted within the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 to successfully give new authority to the Army Corps of Engineers in order for them to address the needs of communities facing repeated flooding events.