1997-06-13_REVISION - M1981302 (61)

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�II II�IIIII�II��I� The Great Flood of 1993 opens a window a 999 n annually for maintenance. The .ng power at that time was only opportunity to reform flood control policy to $14,000 a year, and the total value of the floodplain emphasize natural floodplains and wetlands. proper" was about$1 million—significantly less than the cost of the levee. Finally,after the record- (� breaking Flood of 1978 and years of haggling with �� federal agencies, the town successfully relocated to higher ground. The project, completed in IC'Iv[aD Lettin cost a total of$6.6 million, $4.4 million of w is 9 came from federal agencies.' JUN 13 1997 The Great Flood of 1993 I.Vas the Great Flood of 1993 solely an �Ipb(pmmbld nerolp OaolaOY own or did land management practices and flood control projects contribute to the multibillion-dollar disas- Dthe ter. The conventional wisdom is that this past sum- mer's flooding was caused by a combination of a wet spring and a persistent summer rain created by the eves convergence of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and much cooler, drier air from Canada.' In N reality, water volume is only one of many variables contributing to this year's flooding. Many of the practices used to tame the river in the last 100 years S C O T T E . F A B E R may also have contributed. Channelization, both of = the mainstream and the tributaries, and poor land CD use practices, including wetlands drainage along C [range things are happening as the waters the river banks, have reduced the storage capacity of rn recede from the Great Flood of 1993. The river channels.In addition,levees raise flood heights river dwellers of the Midwest,people whose by cutting off the river from the floodplain and con- e_1 strong ties to the land have led them back to stricting the channel. the river's edge for years after spring and Several studies suggest that land management summer flooding, are having second thoughts. practices, including wetlands destruction, increased iMam• sav thev have had enough. flooding along the Upper Mississippi. Studies of The floods of 1993 have forced manv communi- wetland hydrology have shown that in a watershed ties along the river to reconsider whether levees pro- where lakes and wetlands are preserved, these natu- tea them from flooding.This year,as the floodwaters ral systems act as sponges, absorbing large influxes recede,more than 50 communities have taken the first of water and releasing it slowly. These areas act steps to relocate out of floodplain areas. While this as a buffer, slowing the rate at which the stormwa- kind of a move is not completely unprecedented, ter reaches the river channel. In contrast, a water- never before have so many communities considered shed engineered for agriculture, where water moves relocating, instead of rebuilding, after a flood. quickly off the land through drains and channels, Since the 1970s, a feu communities have re- pushes large volumes of water quickly toward the jetted traditional engineering approaches to flood river and increases the likelihood of flooding. control in favor of nonstructural alternatives that The most recent study of this land,an August move people and property out of harm's wav and al- 1993 report prepared by the Illinois State Water Sur- low the river to spread out and use the natural flood vey,confirmed that wetlands act as natural sponges, control functions of the floodplain. Soldiers Grove, storing water and releasing it over time. The Illinois Wisconsin, is one of the best (mown of these com- study found that for every 1 percent increase in the mumnes. After repeated flooding, the residents of area of a watershed's wetlands, a flood's peak flow Soldiers Grove relocated the entire business district in the streams that drain that watershed is reduced from the floodplain of the hickapoo River to an up- by an average of 3.7 percent.' land site.The land near the river was converted to a Consider then what might have happened if more riverside park, and the relocation project now saves than 19 rrulhon acres of wetlands had not been elinti- an estimated S127,000 annually.' nated from the drainage basins of the Mississippi Before logging and farming cleared vegetation and,Missouri rivers north of St. Louis since the late along the river, Soldiers Grove was not plagued by 1700s. Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri—the states that flooding. By 1970, flooding problems led the U.S. sustained the major share of damage this sum- Army Corps of Engineers to propose a $3.5 million mer—have lost 85 percent of their wetlands, most levee and ask the town to pay$220,000 for construe- of them to agriculture! City of Boulder WARD HOUSE COPY _ Exhibit