Protect People, Not developers: Flood Control is Killing the Mississippi River and the Creatures that Need It for Survival
When Robert E. Lee visited St. Louis he recorded that the Mississippi River was more than 4,000 feet wide. That's eight-tenths of a mile. Since then levees, dams and dikes have reduced that width to a quarter mile in most places near St. Louis. Local governments, state agencies, profit-driven companies and developers fenced it in, slowed it down, backed it up, and pushed it aside. They all love the inexpensive land, the access, and the scenery of the Mississippi Rover, but they're willing to kill what is so distinctive. The bottom-lands that used to flood every year, are now being sprayed with pesticides to protect farms or are being paved to provide more parking spaces for commercial centers. The lands where water frequently crept and receded are not getting the nutrients that the river once brought. Levees, the primary culprit in killing our river, turned the ever-changing river into a rigid pipeline. The levees held back the river, allowing builders to cut down forests, kill animals and drain wetlands.
And Congress wants to keep going.
Levee projects all along the Mississippi are underway and being planned. The levees will keep wetlands dry for the next 500 years. Taken individually, a levee may seem to be good for a community. One protects a handful of farms. Another allows a new bridge to be built. Some protect businesses that built next to the river years ago. Farms are actually better off in the long run without the levees. Roads can be raised without obstructing floodways. And can't businesses be built in other places? As a whole levees reduce the river's ability to absorb floods and storm surges. They hinder bird migration and reduce whole animal populations. Wildlife doesn't understand political borders and fall victim to the natural laws of food and prey. With less suitable habitats, fewer animals survive.
At the same time, survival becomes harder for smaller communities. They are being forced to build levees as strong as every levee upstream. Otherwise the smaller communities end up with the weakest levees, and the greatest risk of being flooded.
Notably, the removal of wetlands is partially to blame for the flooding that came with Katrina. Had storm water been absorbed by wetlands, flooding in New Orleans would not have been so devastating. This has been repeated with lower degrees of damage every year in many places. Water that should be making the river wider, is held between levees to run higher and faster. The higher, faster river is still looking for the lowest land and weakest levee but packing a bigger force than ever.
Instead of spreading out and replenishing the bottom-lands, the river is being forced to flood areas that should never have been developed.
And now comes climate change. What used to be predictable is now haphazard. The people building dams, dikes and levees used historical data from centuries before us. That data went into the calculations for the strength of man-made river control. With changes to climate, though, we're seeing hundred-year floods every couple years. As Congress funded efforts to control the Mississippi, the earth's population made the river harder to control. Some of the same industries and activities that the levees protected, are causing climate change, thus making the levees less dependable. The cycle continues. Businesses and property owners want stronger, higher levees. The businesses then pollute the air more while sprawl generates more traffic. That contributes more to climate change, and the need for higher, stronger levees.
What can we do?
We have a petition. Click here to sign it.
And Congress wants to keep going.
Levee projects all along the Mississippi are underway and being planned. The levees will keep wetlands dry for the next 500 years. Taken individually, a levee may seem to be good for a community. One protects a handful of farms. Another allows a new bridge to be built. Some protect businesses that built next to the river years ago. Farms are actually better off in the long run without the levees. Roads can be raised without obstructing floodways. And can't businesses be built in other places? As a whole levees reduce the river's ability to absorb floods and storm surges. They hinder bird migration and reduce whole animal populations. Wildlife doesn't understand political borders and fall victim to the natural laws of food and prey. With less suitable habitats, fewer animals survive.
At the same time, survival becomes harder for smaller communities. They are being forced to build levees as strong as every levee upstream. Otherwise the smaller communities end up with the weakest levees, and the greatest risk of being flooded.
Notably, the removal of wetlands is partially to blame for the flooding that came with Katrina. Had storm water been absorbed by wetlands, flooding in New Orleans would not have been so devastating. This has been repeated with lower degrees of damage every year in many places. Water that should be making the river wider, is held between levees to run higher and faster. The higher, faster river is still looking for the lowest land and weakest levee but packing a bigger force than ever.
Instead of spreading out and replenishing the bottom-lands, the river is being forced to flood areas that should never have been developed.
And now comes climate change. What used to be predictable is now haphazard. The people building dams, dikes and levees used historical data from centuries before us. That data went into the calculations for the strength of man-made river control. With changes to climate, though, we're seeing hundred-year floods every couple years. As Congress funded efforts to control the Mississippi, the earth's population made the river harder to control. Some of the same industries and activities that the levees protected, are causing climate change, thus making the levees less dependable. The cycle continues. Businesses and property owners want stronger, higher levees. The businesses then pollute the air more while sprawl generates more traffic. That contributes more to climate change, and the need for higher, stronger levees.
What can we do?
We have a petition. Click here to sign it.