Corps Delays River Statement on Alternative

June 19, 2002

The Army Corps of Engineers is delaying its statement on the preferred alternative for operation of the Missouri River. The delay was ordered by the Bush administration because the Fish and Wildlife Service was not satisfied with the Corps' prepared alternative. The White House Council on Environmental Quality ordered the two agencies to develop a unified policy.

"It's definitely a win for farmers," said National Corn Growers Association Production and Marketing Director Paul Bertels. "The Corps found during their study that a spring-rise situation is not going to provide the so-called benefits the environmental groups said it would. The water would not be deep enough, long enough to provide any benefit for the pallid sturgeon."

Advocates of spring rise had claimed breeding patterns of the sturgeon were being altered and the best way to remedy the problem was controlled flooding of the affected area. Bertels said while the battle may be won, the war isn't over.

"We still have a long way to go," he said. "But this is a victory because cooler heads have prevailed. They realized that flooding farmland and causing hundreds of growers and their families to not only lose their land but quite possibly their homes isn't an avenue they want to pursue."