2010.
August 30,2010
August 30, 2010
Letters to the Editor
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
900 N. Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63101
Dear Sir:
Your editorial of Sunday, 08.29.2010 entitled “Engineered to flood” was well written, but only touched the surface of a much larger problem.
All along the course of the Mississippi River there are hundreds of miles of agricultural levees. Their purpose is obvious, to protect farm land. Their effect is to increase the magnitude of flooding up stream and down stream.
Just like the proposed “blunt-nosed chevrons” you noted in your editorial, these agricultural levees channel the flow of water, thereby speeding up its flow and not allowing it to spread out onto the natural flood plain.
There is a solution.
1. Buy the land. The one time cost of the land will be offset very quickly by the money saved from greatly reduced flooding.
2. Remove the agricultural levees.
3. Allow farmers to use the land with the understanding that they will have no protection from crop loss due to flooding and may only be able to harvest one crop per year.
The flood waters will now be able to spread out onto the flood plain; thereby being absorbed into the soil, being slowed in their movement down stream, and also creating new wetlands for wildlife of all kinds.
The Army Corps of Engineers do many things well. However, maintaining these levees is not one them.
Let’s use the ability and power of the Army Corp of Engineers for the greatest good.
Sincerely,
R. Michael Bush
St. Louis Confluence Riverkeeper
May 16, 2010
The season for the SLCR, began late this year, early in the year the weather was not condusive to using the patrol boat, it seemed that if the water was not high it was filled with ice. Safety being a major factor we waited until we could safely begin the season. The first water tests were made in late April. This year we decided that we would have to begin monitoring E-coli, instead of the fecal coliform levels that were taken in 2009. The reasoning for this is that the State of Missouri is concentrating on these readings and our fecal coliform levels were not being strongly considered by the state. With this different testing method, we have increased our costs while maintaing the same test sites. As time progresses it is hoped that a base line will be developed, and that the organizations that monitor water quality will be using our data. The EPA has determined that a level of E-coli greater than 235 is unsafe for full body immersion. Swimming, and water skiing will expose individuals to full body immersion (FBI). Of course not every portion of the Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois Rivers are being used for FBI, however we have observed FBI or close to it on most of the rivers.
August 3, 2009 - Coliform Tests Began making our second set of fecal coliform tests. Conducted tests of sites 5,6,7,8, 9, and 10. With the 6 hours window on having tests at the testing lab it is impossible to take samples of all 10 sites in one day. The balance of the tests will be taken as quickly as possible. We should have back the results for sites 5 through 10 later this week and they will be posted in the test results file. |