Congress Approves Flood Risk, Resilience Study For Upper Miss
With the passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA), Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work in partnership with the states along the Upper Mississippi River (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri) and the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association (UMRBA) to conduct a flood risk and resiliency study.
“This study to improve flood risk resiliency on the Upper Mississippi River is long overdue,” said Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.). “It’s been more than 30 years since the Great Flood of 1993, yet we’ve made little progress toward protecting our communities from future floods. This system study will put states and local communities in the driver’s seat while leveraging the expertise of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finally do something about it.
“I want to thank the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association and the member states for their leadership in helping get this study authorized,” Graves added, “and I look forward to working with them and local stakeholders to better protect our communities from future floods.”
WRDA 2024 provisions related to the Upper Mississippi River Flood Risk and Resiliency Study include:
- Describe the existing flood risk conditions of the Upper Mississippi River System
- Develop recommendations to reduce costs and damages associated with flooding and enable people to be more resilient to flood events
- Identify opportunities where improved flood resiliency can also support navigation, environmental sustainability and environmental restoration goals
- Develop and recommend integrated, comprehensive and systems-based approaches for flood risk reduction and floodplain management to minimize threat to life, health, safety and property resulting from flooding
- Employ spin-off studies to design local solutions for local flood risk resiliency challenges
The WRDA language pertaining to the Upper Mississippi River Flood Risk and Resiliency Study also calls on the Corps to coordinate with the five Upper Mississippi River states, including collectively with the UMRBA; to consult with relevant federal agencies, levee and drainage districts, local governments and the Mississippi River Commission; and to seek and consider input from navigation stakeholders who operate on the Upper Mississippi River, agriculture and conservation organizations and other interested parties.
“Ensuring that all communities are resilient to major flooding will reside in our ability to work together—to create a shared vision for the future and a path forward to get there,” said Kirsten Wallace, executive director of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association.
WRDA 2024 was signed into law January 4. Besides the Upper Mississippi River Flood Risk and Resiliency Study, the law permanently sets the cost share for inland waterway construction and major rehabilitation projects at 75 percent federal treasury and 25 percent Inland Waterways Trust Fund, increases the annual appropriation for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration long-term resource monitoring from $15 million to $25 million, and authorizes a study by the Government Accountability Office to explore challenges faced by non-federal project sponsors to execute cost-share project partnership agreements.
The full text of the Upper Mississippi River Flood Risk and Resiliency Study is available here.
