River Mayors Unite

OMAHA (DTN) -- Mayors along the Mississippi River have seen it all in the past few years -- the devastation of flooding one year to drought the next.

During a press conference Thursday, a group of 20 mayors announced the signing of a "memorandum of common purpose" with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take a number of steps to collectively preserve the Mississippi River in their communities.

"The Mississippi River closed," said Tom Thompson, mayor of Grafton, Ill. "We had just finished recouping from a major flood in 2011 and in just a few months the flood waters came back; thinking about drought was never in our minds."

What Thompson and other mayors along the Mississippi quickly realized is they can't necessarily rely on the federal government to help preserve the river that is important to their economies.

"There is no single federal agency that leads or coordinates responses," he said.

Part of their efforts was to get passed as part of a new farm bill a law that establishes the National Drought Council to include mayors and others coordinating efforts on how to respond to drought disasters. The measure failed along with the farm bill in a recent House vote.

On Thursday, Thompson was one of more than 20 mayors from Minnesota to Louisiana who signed the memorandum with the Corps, designed to create a coordinated voice for the river.

The mayors' experiences with drought and floods have led to a "significant deterioration of the Mississippi River region's crops, made worse since no single federal agency was responsible for leading or coordinating drought-related response and recovery," they said in joint news release.

The agreement includes what the mayors have identified as shared priorities along river.

That includes fostering continued education and increased effectiveness of a newly formed bipartisan Congressional Mississippi River Caucus; helping to focus federal resources to advance improvement in the river's water quality; encouraging the development of a National Drought Council that works with stakeholders to create a drought policy action plan and national drought preparedness information; establishing a multi-agency initiative to develop and implement a coordinated strategy that aids local governments as they address aquatic invasive species in the Mississippi River basin; and preserving a pre-disaster mitigation program for hazard planning and project implementation on hundreds of Army Corp projects along the river.

More than 20 mayors signed the memorandum, including: Francis Slay, St. Louis, Mo.; David Kleis, St. Cloud, Minn.; Rita Albrecht, Bemidji, Minn.; Larry Brown, Natchez, Miss.; Roy Buol, Dubuque, Iowa; Hyram Copeland, Vidalia, La.; Bill Gluba, Davenport, Iowa; Brad Gunderson, Sauk Falls, Minn.; Mark Huber, Prescott, Wis.; David Lattus, Hickman, Ky.; Darrel Olson, Baxter, Minn.; Joe Perske, Sartell, Minn.; Harry Rediger, Cape Girardeau, Mo.; Jo Anne Smiley, Clarksville, Mo.; Tom Thompson, Grafton, Ill.; Cathy VanRisseghem, Little Falls, Minn.; Mark Vulich, Clinton, Iowa and A.C. Wharton, Memphis, Tenn.

The Mississippi River is responsible for $105 billion worth of U.S. gross domestic product; provides drinking water for more than 18 million residents; transports 62% of U.S. agricultural output; delivers nearly 400 tons of coal and petroleum products; and directly supports one million jobs and millions more indirectly.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@telventdtn.com.

(CC/CZ)

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