Flood protection reservoirs favored by two 2nd District GOP hopefuls

MOUNT PLEASANT – A flood protection measure largely discarded because of the cost and disruption to the communities it would protect has been endorsed by at least two candidates in Iowa's 2

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District.

The 15-county district that runs from Linn County to Missouri and east to the Mississippi sustained billions of dollars of damage from flooding in June 2008. All four Republicans seeking their party's nomination in the 2

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District -- Steve Rathje of Cedar Rapids and Christopher Reed and Rob Gettemy, both of Marion, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks --  called for greater federal involvement in flood prevention and flood recovery when they spoke at a forum near Mount Pleasant May 26. The winner will challenge Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack of Mount Vernon.

Rathje and Reed called for making reservoirs part of the “federal infrastructure,” which they say is one two responsibilities of federal government.

The Army Corps of Engineers should be working on building reservoirs north of Cedar Rapids and Waterloo “to dump water into to keep it from coming down and destroying our cities, ruining our jobs and taking our homes and dispersing our families,” Rathje said.

Reed outdid Rathje, calling for five reservoirs “up and down the river.”

Reservoirs, he said, would be permanent flood protection and “allow for recreation and revenue for the state.”

They would offer permanent flood protection, according to Dennis Hamilton, chief of the project management branch of the Corps' Rock Island District, the prospect of a Coralville Lake-like reservoir on the Cedar River above Cedar Rapids has been discounted as too costly a flood-control measure with too little benefit.

Hamilton pointed to a 1964 study of the Cedar River and Iowa River watersheds, which looked at seven potential reservoir sites on the Cedar River above Cedar Rapids. The study did not recommend any site, he said, because the watershed is relatively flat with few places to hold enough water for a reservoir.

Creating a huge, dry reservoir upstream would protect Cedar Rapids, but require buying out several towns and moving railroad tracks and even parts of Interstate 380 and the nuclear energy plant near Palo.

The option of having a number of smaller retention sites likely would cost much and provide little protection, Hamilton said.

Also, Jason Hellendrung, a partner with Sasaki Associates Inc., which is advising Cedar Rapids, said the most expensive flood protection options -- an upstream reservoir and diversion channels around the city -- have fallen away because of the expense and the 20 to 50 years it would take to implement them.

Miller-Meeks warned that reservoirs alone won't protect communities from flooding as long as the Corps and Department of Natural Resources keep water levels high for recreational purposes.

Gettemy said a congressman should be “a megaphone and microphone” for people struggling to recover from the flooding.