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Broken levees leave farmers unprotected this spring

The U.S. Army Corps warns that it could take two years before all the repairs are done in Missouri.

Mindy Ward, Editor, Missouri Ruralist

March 9, 2020

5 Min Read
Flooded field with grain bins after levee fail
CAN’T HOLD BACK: A levee as seen on the left side of the photo could not hold back the waters of the Missouri River. Water ended up surrounding farm grain bins. Mindy Ward

There’s a real possibility that it could take two years to fully repair every levee damaged in the Kansas City District right now. Mike Durlin, emergency manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, says the region is facing the largest levee rehabilitation effort since the 1993 flood.

The 2019 flood started in March and lasted through June. In the end, more than 100 levee systems breached, flooding over a half-million acres throughout Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska — 80% of that acreage happened to fall in Missouri.

Durlin joined representatives from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Missouri Department of Agriculture, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, University of Missouri Extension and Missouri Farm Bureau as part of a flood update group that traveled the state and shared the latest information on levee repairs from the 2019 flood, along with crop insurance options for farmers.

Insurance issues

According to USDA, there are only six levees in the state certified as repaired. Those levees are in Pike, Lincoln, Carroll and Boone counties. Then there are about 64 levees that have either not been repaired or are not certified as repaired. Many of these levees are in the northwest and central regions of the state.

Six levees are certified as temporarily or permanently repaired, but not to the prior specifications. This means the levee is not repaired to its original designed height, slope or crown width with the same materials used to build the levee before the breach. However, Greg Oetting with the USDA Risk Management Agency says farmers can purchase crop insurance on those partially protected acres.

“The RMA may adjust the rate for acreage on the protected side of the breached levee system to reflect the new flood risk of the acreage,” he explains.

Farmers must make crop insurance decisions by March 15. There will be a window between the sales closing date and earliest plant date where repairs and certification may still be made on levees.

Whether partially or fully complete, levees must be certified by professional engineer. What that means to Blake Hurst, Missouri Farm Bureau president, is “wait until your levee is certified before you plant.”

Planting in an unprotected area where the levee is not fully restored will be costly in 2020. Early estimates show at least double the premium for areas such as Atchison County. And in other counties, some reach three times the cost of a year ago.

“If you are thinking of planting around April 5, and you think your levee is going to be fixed and certified by the end of the month, just wait,” Hurst says. “If you plant before, even one day, you are locked into the highest premium rate in the county.”

What is taking so long?

The Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received 119 levee rehabilitation requests. Some are duplicates from damage during the March and May flood events. Accounting for this, there are about 70 levee rehabilitations in the Kansas City area alone. The cost to repair is upward of $80 million.

Repairing a levee is a lengthy process. Once the request is made, a planning document is developed that describes the levee’s structure and damage. Then there is a cost estimate created for repairs. The entire document is then submitted to division headquarters for approval. After approval, Durlin says, a funding request is submitted.

As of the first week in March, 60 of the projects have information reports submitted and approved by the division. “From a funding perspective of levee rehabilitation, we’re looking really good right now,” he notes. “We’re getting all the money we ask for to fix these levee systems.”

Once funding is in place, there is an engineering and design phase. The Corps works with levee districts to complete this portion of the project. Then the project is advertised for bid. “That is a 30-day period,” Durlin explains. After those days are up, the Corps opens the bids and then awards a contract.

“Typically, those contracts go about 120 days,” he says. “Sometimes it varies based on the magnitude of damages.” The time to pull all the information together and actual construction on the ground can take years to finish.

As the days pass, these unrepaired levees put farmers at risk should another weather event take place.

Racing against the rain

The spring 2020 flood outlook by the National Weather Service looks grim. Throughout the Missouri River basin, soil conditions are extremely saturated. There's a lot of snowpack in the eastern part of the Dakotas and Minnesota.

Durlin estimates about 3 to 5 inches of snow water equivalent. The mountain snowpack is about average, but he notes that snow in that region does not stop until mid-April, so additional accumulation is possible.

If the snow melts off slowly over a 10- to 12-day time frame, the lower Missouri River region may not feel the effect. But if it melts off in a day or two, like in 2019, it will push a lot of water rapidly down the river system.

“Honestly, the biggest factor that we've got to worry about down here, obviously, it's localized heavy rainfall and widespread heavy rainfall,” Durlin says. “The ground is still saturated out here.” Timing, amount, when and where rainfall occurs is still anybody’s guess.

With the number of levee repairs still in question, farmers should visit with crop insurance agents or the RMA to make risk management choices in 2020.

About the Author

Mindy Ward

Editor, Missouri Ruralist

Mindy resides on a small farm just outside of Holstein, Mo, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis.

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism, she worked briefly at a public relations firm in Kansas City. Her husband’s career led the couple north to Minnesota.

There, she reported on large-scale production of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and dairy, as well as, biofuels for The Land. After 10 years, the couple returned to Missouri and she began covering agriculture in the Show-Me State.

“In all my 15 years of writing about agriculture, I have found some of the most progressive thinkers are farmers,” she says. “They are constantly searching for ways to do more with less, improve their land and leave their legacy to the next generation.”

Mindy and her husband, Stacy, together with their daughters, Elisa and Cassidy, operate Showtime Farms in southern Warren County. The family spends a great deal of time caring for and showing Dorset, Oxford and crossbred sheep.

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