Water Resource Plan
Flooding has happened since the beginning of time. Floods are caused by many different factors ranging from torrential rain falls to tsunamis. However, our country is impacted by one of the world’s largest rivers, the Mississippi River. This is our country’s largest river and is one of nation’s most important natural resources. The Mississippi River drains parts or all of 31 states and two Canadian provinces, an area of 1.25 million square miles. The drainage basin extends from New York to Montana and from Minnesota to Louisiana. More than 250 tributaries drain into the Mississippi, including the Ohio and Missouri rivers.
Every year the Mississippi experiences minor to severe flooding. In 1993 the Mississippi experienced a five-hundred year flood which cost billions of dollars and left thousands homeless. The Mississippi will flood again and we will lose the battle of holding it yet again. According to Audubon.org, “The Mississippi River and its major tributaries have been significantly altered for flood control and to support navigation. As a result, virtually all of the Mississippi floodplain has been developed, drained or modified.” After the so-called Five-Hundred year flood the government conducted a massive buyout of residences and farms around the St. Louis, MO area to maintain wetlands that will reduce the effects of major flooding. Unfortunately, not everyone took the buyout. The lands around the river are considered very rich farm land and the government simply can not afford to pay the premium on such lands. The river town of Valmeyer, IL was totally relocated to the top of a surrounding bluff. This created a massive wetland.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineers,
The Mississippi River always has been a threat to the security of the valley through which it flows. Garciliaso de la Vega, in his history of the expedition begun by DeSoto, described the first recorded flood of the Mississippi as severe and of prolonged duration,...
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