Did You Know...

. . . that Corps of Engineers dams on the Missouri River prevented more than $5 billion in damages this year?

This year's runoff was the highest in the 100 years of record keeping. Tremendous snowfall in the basin produced nearly twice the normal runoff. This caused two high water events - in April from melting snow on the plains and in late June from snow melt in the mountains.

About $4 billion of the total flood damages prevented were in the major industrial and commercial areas of Kansas City, both in Missouri and Kansas. Other examples of flood damages prevented included $143 million in Bismarck, North Dakota; $35 million in Pierre, South Dakota; and $111 million in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota and Sioux City, Iowa. The metropolitan areas around Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, benefited by $330 million in savings. Without the six mainstream reservoirs, The Missouri River would have spread from bluff to bluff in many areas in both April and June, causing widespread destruction.

An interesting point - the large runoff benefited protected birds (terns and piping plovers). High water in the reservoirs and on the river is creating much- needed habitat for migratory shore birds by scrubbing vegetation from the islands and sandbars on which they nest.

Thanks to Earl E. Eiker, Corps of Engineers, for contributing this "Benefits of Dams."

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, November 1997, page 3)