It’s almost a given that if you scratch a flood, you’ll find bad policies:
July 3, 2008 | The floodwaters are starting to ebb in the swollen Mississippi, which in the past few weeks has seen its worst flooding in 15 years. Since May, at least 24 people have died from the torrential rains and flooding, more than 38,000 people have evacuated their homes and an estimated 5 million acres of corn and soybean have been waterlogged. But as the great mop-up begins, some scientists contend this is one natural disaster that is by no means just natural: It is the dramatic result of more than 100 years of narrowing and constricting the river.
“There is a widespread pattern of flood levels getting higher and flooding becoming more frequent,” says Nicholas Pinter, a geologist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Pinter and colleagues charge that structures built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to aid the shipping industry are contributing to the flooding. They’re calling for the National Academy of Sciences to have oversight over Army Corps river projects, and for the federal agency to refrain from building structures that exacerbate the floods.
“The Army Corps of Engineers certifies its own projects. It’s kind of like children giving themselves their own grades,” says Robert Criss, professor of geology at Washington University in St. Louis. “There’s a definite conflict of interest there.” Pinter was in Washington, D.C., last week lobbying Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, among other members of Congress, about how the government’s own actions have contributed to the horrific flooding. Criss, Pinter and other geologists are also organizing a conference on the issue for this fall.
About ten years ago I took the train into St. Louis, and saw wonderful views of the river, with a steam rising off the water when the sun hit it. Last time, about three years ago, when I took that same ride and looked forward to the view, instead there were excavated scars where gravel was being dug up and the riverfront was all industrial. Piles of rock replaced the slopes around the river. A shame in more ways than one.