<p><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', trebuchet, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #000000; line-height: normal;"><strong>By</strong> <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/joe_herring/" style="text-decoration: none; color: #0033cc;"><strong>Joe Herring</strong></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', trebuchet, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: #000000; line-height: normal;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Missouri River basin encompasses a vast region in the central and west-central portion of our country.  This river, our nation's longest, collects the melt from Rocky <span style="border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-color: #009900 !important; color: #009900 !important; background-image: none !important; background-attachment: scroll !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-color: transparent !important; cursor: pointer !important; position: static; display: inline !important; padding-top: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-family: 'times new roman', times !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; font-size: 16px !important; text-decoration: underline; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important;">Mountain</span>snowpack and the runoff from our continents' upper plains before joining the Mississippi river above St. Louis some 2,300 miles later.  It is a mighty river, and dangerous.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some sixty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the process of taming the Missouri by constructing a series of six dams.  The idea was simple: massive dams at the top moderating flow to the smaller dams below, generating electricity while providing desperately needed control of the river's devastating floods.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The stable flow of water allowed for the construction of the concrete and earthen levees that protect more than 10 million people who reside and work within the river's reach.  It allowed millions of acres of floodplain to become useful for farming and <span style="border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-color: #009900 !important; color: #009900 !important; background-image: none !important; background-attachment: scroll !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-color: transparent !important; cursor: pointer !important; position: static; display: inline !important; padding-top: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-family: 'times new roman', times !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; font-size: 16px !important; text-decoration: underline; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important;">development</span>.  In fact, these uses were encouraged by our government, which took credit for the resulting economic boom.  By nearly all measures, the project was a great success.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But after about thirty years of operation, as the environmentalist movement gained strength throughout the seventies and eighties, the Corps received a great deal of pressure to include some specific environmental concerns into their MWCM (Master Water Control <span style="border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-color: #009900 !important; color: #009900 !important; background-image: none !important; background-attachment: scroll !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-color: transparent !important; cursor: pointer !important; position: static; display: inline !important; padding-top: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-family: 'times new roman', times !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; font-size: 16px !important; text-decoration: underline; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important;">Manual</span>, the "bible" for the operation of the dam system).  Preservation of habitat for at-risk bird and fish populations soon became a </span></span><a href="http://www.time.com/time/2002/lewis_clark/lmissouri.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: #0033cc;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">hot issue</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> among the burgeoning environmental lobby.  The pressure to satisfy the demands of these groups grew exponentially as politicians eagerly traded their common sense for "green" political support.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Things turned absurd from there.  An </span></span><a href="http://www.americanrivers.org/" style="text-decoration: none; color: #0033cc;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">idea</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> to restore the nation's rivers to a natural (pre-dam) state swept through the environmental movement and their allies.  <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/the_purposeful_flooding_of_americas_heartland.html">READ MORE &gt;&gt;&gt;</a></span></span></p>
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