Corps Solicits Public Input For Lower Mississippi Comprehensive Management Study

The Corps of Engineers held a press conference January 23 to kick off public comments  for the forthcoming Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Management Study. “Your concerns, needs and interests will be critical to this process,” said Col. Cullen Jones, 65th commander and district engineer of the New Orleans Engineer District. Further dates for public scoping sessions, as well as quarterly updates on the process, will be released. Jones is the lead for executing the study.

The two presenters Jones introduced were Ann Ellis, senior program manager for LMRCMS, and Cherie Price, a senior planner at the New Orleans district. Price sketched out the Corps’ six-stage planning process.

The LMRCMS is a $25 million “mega study” to take place over five years. It will evaluate alternatives for ensuring effective long-term management of the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau, Mo., to the Gulf of Mexico. It was authorized in a section of the 2020 Water Resources Development Act. The study will re-examine and re-envision all aspects of the operation and management of the Lower Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) system “in an adaptable, resilient and sustainable manner.” The study area includes the Atchafalaya Basin and several coastal sub-basins.

The regional study team will conduct the study of the LMR basin for the purposes of hurricane and storm damage reduction, flood risk management, structural and nonstructural flood control, floodplain management strategies, navigation, ecosystem and environmental restoration, water supply, hydropower production, recreation and other purposes as determined by the secretary of the Army. The  Corps  of Engineers will consult with federal, state and local agencies, tribes, non-federal interests and other stakeholders.

In accordance with the authorities for the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) Project, the study will develop and provide actionable recommendations to Congress. The MR&T Project was authorized in 1928, after the historic floods of 1927, to provide protection against the “project design flood,” or the worst flood projected for a 100-year period. It authorized a levee-building program that has had a return of $131 for every dollar spent.

In citing the problems and opportunities that helped trigger the study, Ellis mentioned both low and high water increases, including six openings of the Bonnet Carre spillway in the past 12 years, while seeing increasing incidences of low water and the need for saltwater sills to protect drinking water.  There are concerns with channel cutoffs in the Upper Mississippi River, along with new channels and crevasses being cut in the Lower Mississippi.

River training structures could also be altered to benefit habitats. Proposals to protect against coastal erosion with freshwater diversions have also been made. One of the first steps, Ellis said, is a comprehensive literature review of earlier studies.

Price sketched out the Corps’ siplanning process for the study and gave a preliminary timetable, many of whose dates will be announced later.

A recording of the press conference is available at www.mvn.usace.army.mil/About/LMRComp/.