The motor vessel MISSISSIPPI docked in Helena-West Helena, hosted the Mississippi River Commission’s high-water inspection trip on April 1 2024, where a commission official voiced concerns about a potential project backlog.
A Mississippi River Commission official is warning of a potential backlog for flood control work as its budget flatlines after major Biden-era investments.
This comes as portions of the lower basin face increased flood risk, and mayors along the river are lobbying Congress for more funding for flood control.
HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. — A Mississippi River Commission official is warning of a potential backlog for flood control work as its budget flatlines after major Biden-era investments.
This comes as portions of the lower basin face increased flood risk, and mayors along the river are lobbying Congress for more funding for flood control.
Army Corps of Engineers officials held their high water inspection trip — one of their two annual public meetings — aboard the official towboat, the MISSISSIPPI, as it made its way south, stopping in four river towns this week. One of those stops was in Helena-West Helena, a town of about 10,000 along the Mississippi River.
The commission’s meeting serves two purposes: to gather input from residents on Corps projects, and to inspect the projects. Those include a $20 million floodwall repair project in Helena-West Helena. The project — currently deadlocked due to a land dispute — protects around $1.1 billion in property.
“There’s…more that needs to be done, and needs to be done better in some cases,” said Lieutenant Colonel Collin R. Jones, the Corps’ Memphis District deputy commander.
The Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries Project (MR&T) was originally authorized in 1928, following the devastating Great Flood of 1927. Under it, the Corps built a comprehensive system of levees, flood walls and channel improvements to protect communities along the lower Mississippi River. The Corps estimates that it has protected around $1 trillion in flood damage since 1928.
Decreased funding
The Army Corps’ budget for the MR&T flatlined over the past few years, after a significant funding boost in fiscal year 2022, when it was appropriated just over $2 billion, $808 million of which came from former President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The next two years, the project’s budget saw a decrease as the infrastructure injection’s funding lapsed. In fiscal year 2023, it was allocated $385.5 million. In fiscal year 2024, appropriations sat at $368 million.
The Corps’ 2025 budget for fiscal year 2025 was proposed last March and is still being coordinated with the Trump administration. For this fiscal year, the MR&T has been operating from a $50 billion supplemental funding package.
Commissioner James Reeder, of Memphis, said that the $800 million funding allocation for fiscal year 2022 is what is needed to keep the project running at a “good rate.” MR&T funding for 2023-2024 were each around half of that $800 million.
According to Reeder, the flatline in funding over the past few fiscal years could cause a “backlog” moving forward. MR&T projects previously experienced such a backlog before the injection of infrastructure funding.
Arkansas officials in attendance said they wanted increased funding for projects across the Natural State. And quickly.
“There is a lot of money sitting in the coffers and I ask that you responsibly put it on the ground, and finish the project,” said Rob Rash, the chief executive officer of the St. Francis Levee District, on the west side of Memphis. “We’ve never been without (flood control) in my generation, and I sure don’t want to be without it.”
The Corps’ Memphis District has 27 active Mississippi River Levee projects. Nine of those are in design, and 18 are in construction. More than a hundred other levee improvement projects are planned for the area.
From December through May the Mississippi River generally rises, as snowmelt makes its way south. But the river has been experiencing “weather whiplash” — swinging between drought and floods, that scientists have attributed to climate change.
Average annual rainfall has increased by 2-8 inches in the past 50 years across the basin. As this rainfall has increased, its pattern has changed, with more precipitation coming in the winter and spring months and less in the summer.
Changes in rainfall patterns can make land along the river more vulnerable to erosion.
Local river concerns
Arkansans are asking the Corps for more support, not less. West Hornor, a member of the Helena Improvement District, wants nearly $1.1 million for a flood wall improvement project in downtown Helena, to protect it from floods.
“Our biggest economic generator is that river,” he said. “The hazard of that flood is certainly there, and the risk of a breach in that wall is certainly there.”
The commission recommended that the city pursue a federal U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.
But John Edwards, a former Clinton administration official and the general counsel of Helena Harbor, said that’s not a sure solution, either.
“(USDA) … for a number of years now has had cuts in what it’s able to do with its funding budget,” he said. The agency is seeing broad-ranging cuts under the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency.
The USDA’s Rural Development office provided at least $445 million to Arkansas in 2024 alone, and annually provides billions to the country’s rural communities through assistance and grant programs. All but three of the department’s rural housing programs received funding cuts in the Congressional spending bill passed in March.
The Mississippi River Commission meets twice per year, once during high water and once during low water.
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. Used with permission on The Narrative Matters…
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