Missouri Basin Governors Insist Feds Build River-Control Systems, Need Space Age Mobilization

April 8, 2019 (EIRNS)—On April 3 in Council Bluffs, Iowa on the Missouri River across from Omaha, Nebraska, the governors of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA, to demand that a flood-control building program of dams, levees, and other structures be launched, to prevent the kind of devastation now taking place in the Midwest, because the infrastructure system was never properly built to manage the Missouri Basin run-off. With more rain, snow, and snowmelt, there are weeks ahead of still more damage, including in the Mississippi River Basin. The damage to the food chain to and agriculture capacity is enormous.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) briefed reporters after their meeting, to stress that they want a quick and big “Federal response,” and that in three weeks they will meet again—including with Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) who was unable to attend last week—to receive options of what can be done, from the Army Corps and FEMA.

This is the moment for the U.S. to resume the space age deployment of technology on Earth, as well as in the skies. President Donald Trump has sounded the call in his directives for the Moon-Mars mobilization.

The chief reason for the Midwest flooding is that the infrastructure drive for water management during the Eisenhower/Kennedy years was later abandoned, at the same time the U.S. space program was downgraded, and monetarist casino economics was brought in.

In 1944, Congress had passed the “Flood Control Act of 1994,” which included the Missouri Basin Project (the “Pick-Sloan” plan, named after its engineer-designers), that intended to have 157 major and minor dams on the system. These dams, plus levees, impoundment lakes, and other structures, would have prevented the destruction now taking place, as well as previous flood episodes in recent decades, such as in 2011 and 1993.

From 1946 to 1966, six major “Pick-Sloan” dams were built in North Dakota and South Dakota. President John F. Kennedy personally dedicated the Oahe Dam in South Dakota in 1962. Also at this time, the giant California State Water Project was proceeding. On the continental scale, North American Water and Power Alliance was backed by Kennedy and Congress. But instead, as of the 1970s, NAWAPA and the full build-out of the Missouri River Basin Project, and the Upper Mississippi as well, were stopped. The Wall Street monetarism came to dominate, along with its anti-infrastructure “green” mind-control, undercutting both the U.S. space program, and terra-management on Earth.

Today’s Omaha World Herald argued the point in its editorial, “A Major Federal Response Is Needed To Boost Missouri River Flood Control,” saying:

“Just as the current flooding is virtually without precedent in our region, so the Federal response needs to be appropriate in scale. The governors [last week] mentioned significant options: Changing Federal laws to make flood control a higher priority in Missouri River management. Increasing levee capacity upstream. Shortening the permitting time for levee changes. Building more levees and building them higher. Using improved levee materials.

“Decades ago, the Federal government directed the Army Corps of Engineers to channelize the Missouri River in order to ‘tame’ it for barge traffic and flood control. But [that was never done, and] as experience this year shows, the Missouri ... retains enormous destructive power, and its fury is taking too heavy a toll....”

Furthermore, Federal emergency measures for farmers are also in order. They include, first, a moratorium on any farm foreclosure, given the financially impossible situation farmers face from the flooding, on top of low prices. Also, indemnity funds must be established to deal with such specific crises as the fact that insurance does not cover farmers’ losses of crops stored on the farm, because Federally-subsidized crop insurance does not extend to storage. There are specific livestock needs that must be addressed as well.