Study of Missouri River to expose differing visions of its future

Chance Norton cruises his speedboat along the straight-banked river, oblivious to the big debate looming over its future.
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"It's another day in paradise," Norton said, beer in hand, several friends aboard. "I'm a river rat. It's always a good thing, especially the sandbars. We'll camp all night and boat all day."

Like Norton, thousands of Americans take for granted the Missouri River, long a source of drinking water, electricity, commerce, recreation and tourism. But the day is coming when the nation's longest river will command much more attention.

An exhaustive five-year, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of the Missouri begins in October. The $25 million study is expected to set up another round of battles among states, tribes and organizations with competing visions of the historic waterway.

At issue: everything from future drinking supplies and cooling water for power generation, to flood control, barge traffic, habitat protection, untapped recreational opportunities and potential economic gain.

The future of the oft-forgotten treasure affects not only the seven states along the Missouri's main channel, but many others along the Missouri-fed Mississippi.

"It's one of the great rivers of the world, and we aren't reaping the benefits," said Bernard Hoyer, assistant to the director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "We've destroyed the river. As it is, it's just a big ditch."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the nation's dam and reservoir systems, plans to ask all Americans to offer their hopes for the Missouri, said Paul Johnston, corps spokesman for the Omaha, Neb., office. Iowans' hopes will wash up against those of other states as upstream interests in recreation and irrigation compete with lower-state calls for more water to be released downstream for barges and tribes' water supplies.

Al Sturgeon, a Sioux City lawyer who represents Iowa on the Missouri River committee, said a key will be restoring the river, long neglected compared with the heavily traveled Mississippi. Sturgeon believes a healthier river would mean more tourism, especially to areas such as Iowa's geologically unusual Loess Hills in the state's western border.

from the Great Falls Tribune (IA)