Missouri River Planning Recommendations

Home Browse Search

Plan' ning Process Summar__yl The foll owing document planning effort in 1995. They people attended the conference, �`v summarizes the recommelida- hired facilitators from The River aind -the participants produced tioris developed by the :Missouri Group to help them design a -, nearly 80 pages of recommenda= `Inver Basin Association after an process thaf would lead to a tions for MRBA's consideration. _ extensive planning effort over consensus on at least certain. The MRBA Directors spent several the past twa river operating months reviewing results of the o years that utilized elements of- input from citizens throughout plan. Bismarck conference. the basin. The MRBA Directors agreed Then, during the spring of The Missouri River Basin on several issues early in the 1997, the;MRBA Executive Association (MRBA) is a coati- -process. One point of agree- Director met with ad, hoc:com- 'tion of the basin's states and : mend was that the basin'needed Fnittees representing the follow- - Indian tribes: The tribes are to hive in place an extensive ing five interests in the river: represented in the Association environmental monitoring navigation; "recreation; fish and by the Executive Director of the program. The Association asked - wildlife concerns; bank stabiliza- - Mni Sose Tribal. Water Rights the Missouri River Natural tion and agriculture; and munici= Coalition. The states parA6pate Resources Committee -to de pal and industrial water supply. through agovernor- appointed velop a'draft monitoring pro - The MRBA Directors felt that the _representative from each of the gram for the basin; -that docu- hydropower recommendations following states: Iowa, Kansas, ment has been drafted and is that came from the June 1996 IV�issouri, Montana, Nebraska, . available "for comment. Bismarck Conference did not ' North Dakota, South Dakota, need elaboration, so there was - and Wyoming. The Directors also agreed no follow -up meeting with the that the Corps and other agen -- hydropower committee: In 1994, the Corps of Engi- cies`need to involve the basins neers . (Corp) published the Indian tribes to a greater degree,. After working through the': results of extended review of in planning` activities. Bismarck Conference and the the Master Water Control following committees' sugges Manual for the Missouri River- Finally, the Directors agreed tions; the MRBA Directors , (Master Maritial). In the docu- that the spring rise (an increase drafted a set of recommenda " men #, the Corps recommended in springtime reservoir releases tions that was the focus of a several changes in the way it to simulate the flows that second MRBA - sponsored. managed the river. Some of the - .existed before the dams-were - basinwide event, this one held in, changes were controversial, and built) proposed by the Corps is . Kansas City in N ovember 1997.; the document failed to achieve not the best method for ad- public approval. dressing habitat concerns. ' The MRBA - Directors used yM. input from the Kansas City sn The MRBA,Direetors (or a Conference to develop the - hate that year, the -Corps g - . asked the MRBA Directors to " . nized a basmwide conference in . document that "follows: Readers develop elements of a Missouri Bismarck, North Dakota in June should note that in the months River operating plan that. would 1996, to solicit feedback from. that follow, the MRBA Directors meet with broader In - people who would be affected will also develop recommenda response, the Directors of the by any plan for the Missouri fons on drought - flows for the , Association began an .extensive River. Approximately 120 river system. Z ti .