Three Midwestern Congressman — including western Iowa’s Steve King of Kiron — are weighing in on the legal skirmish over Missouri River water levels. King says the Missouri should flow under the plan that’s been in force for the past four decades as it allows for flood control, power generation in the Dakota dams, agriculture in the bottoms, and barge traffic. King says a judge in Washington, D.C. has decided the flow should be altered, and King says that endangers crops along the Missouri River bottoms, as well as barge traffic. King says he “doesn’t know why (the judge) thinks she has jurisdiction in Middle America.” King says reducing the flow of water in the Missouri is a huge economic blow. King says it drastically reduces the energy that’s generated by turbines in the Missouri. And he says the barge traffic will probably have to stop if the release of water from the dams in Dakota is stopped.King says letting those dams in Dakota fill up, and then having the water released later endangers crops along the Missouri corridor that could be flooded out when the crops are most vulnerable. King, Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry and Missouri Congressman Sam Graves have written an Army officials who’ll decide what the Army Corps does with the Missouri River flow. In their letter, the Congressmen say reduced flows in the Missouri could cost Iowa and Nebraska power plants tens of millions of dollars and make it nearly impossible for power producers along the river and the dams to comply with federal water laws. The three politicians also cite a Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute study which concluded the loss of Missouri River barge traffic could reduce corn prices by 19 cents per bushel in the region.
