PERU – State Sen. Julie Slama introduced a resolution in the Nebraska Legislature calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-prioritize flood control on the Missouri River and modernize levee standards.

Slama: “LR 288 was introduced as a means of making a statement by the Nebraska Legislature to the US Army Corps of Engineers that we need to be prioritizing flood control in the lives and livelihoods of people downstream above that of recreation and wildlife management.”

The resolution says damage due to 2019 flooding reached $450 million and says there is an increasing frequency of flooding in Nebraska.

It references the Flood Control Act of 1936, which authorized civil engineering projects such as dams, levees, dikes and other flood control measures.

Slama: “We’re also asking that the Army Corps of Engineers update their levee standards for the first time since the 1980s and do a full overhaul, really for the first time, since the 1950s in order to better protect our region.”

  by Dan Swanson

The resolution says, as the result of a lawsuit, the US Army Corps of Engineers was ordered to address a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion regarding compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

Slama said modifications to the master water control manual for the Missouri River basin in 2004 went too far.

Slama: “This flood has impacted Nebraskans on so many different levels. We see that southeast Nebraska was a microcosm for this experience. Everyone was impacted in some way, shape or form, in the 2019 floods. Whether home owners who saw their houses be flooded and became homeless or farmers who saw thousands of acres of their land being inundated by flood waters for months, or even just community members who watched their local roadways become very dangerous as interstate traffic was diverted onto highways 75 and 50.”

"This sends a clear message to the Corps of Engineers and to Washington, D.C., in saying Nebraskans have had enough of the flooding and the negative impacts that go along with it.”

Slama there is room for a compromise between the Endangered Species Act and the river management.

Slama: “The lawsuit in 2003, which triggered the 2004 master manual rewrite, was, I believe, a step too far in considering those species above the lives of people downstream along the river.”

She said she has spoken to the speaker of the state Legislature in hopes of getting a public hearing scheduled for the resolution.
Slama: “I think regardless of the outcome of this resolution, which I am quite confident that it will pass, this sends a clear message to the Corps of Engineers and to Washington, D.C., in saying Nebraskans have had enough of the flooding and the negative impacts that go along with it.”

She said all but one of the state senators with constituents along the Missouri River is a co-sponsor of the resolution.