The Missouri River Ecosystem Exploring the Prospects for Recovery (2002) / Chapter Skim
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2. Missouri River History, Management, and Legal Setting
2. Missouri River History, Management, and Legal Setting
Pages 21-53
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From page 21... ...
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY During the last Ice Age, glaciers that extended southward from Canada into the northern United States defined the Missouri River basin's northeastern boundary. Glacial lobes directed the Missouri River drainage toward the Mississippi River.
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The basin's western rivers, such as the Marias and the Yellowstone, gain a large portion of their flow from spring snowmelt. In eastern portions of the Missouri basin, the climate is humid continental and the vegetation is medium-height bluestem grasses, with mixed oak and hickory forest.
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HUMAN SETTLEMENT Native Americans were the Missouri River basin's first known inhabitants. Spanish explorers, followed by British and French fur traders, were the first Europeans to enter the Missouri basin.
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During the nineteenth century, the prevailing assumption was that land disposition policies would be sufficient to settle and sustain the West, including much of the Missouri River basin. But by the twentieth century, based in part on John Wesley Powell's surveys of the arid regions of the western United States (Powell, 1878)
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From page 25... ...
The Reclamation Act of 1902 established federal support of irrigation in the western United States as a national policy and created the Reclamation Service, later renamed the Bureau of Reclamation. Missouri River basin residents were quick to recognize the potential for securing resources water resources development; they were, however, less able to profit from the program than areas farther west that had established irrigation districts.
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From page 26... ...
By 1904, irrigation projects were under way in the Missouri River basin at several locations. For example, by 1909, the Yellowstone River was being diverted in two locations.
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In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there was no coordinated federal program for flood damage reduction structures and policies, and large floods resulted in significant losses of life and property. Congress considered flood control primarily a local responsibility until passage of the 1917 Flood Control Act, which placed flood control on equal footing with navigation within the Corps and authorized Corps flood-control programs on the Mississippi and Sacramento rivers.
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From page 28... ...
The Corps was also authorized to include hydropower as a project purpose, but only as a subsidiary to flood control or navigation. Taking advantage of the hydropower potential in the upper Missouri basin, private utilities had constructed several hydropower dams on the tributaries upstream from Fort Peck.
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, which authorized the President to undertake public works projects. The Fort Peck project appeared to offer an opportunity to put people in the Upper Missouri basin to work and to support Missouri River navigation.
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Pursuant to Title II of the 1965 Water Resources Planning Act, the Missouri River Basin Commission (MRBC) was established in 1972 and assumed the responsibilities of the former Missouri Basin Inter-Agency Committee.
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However, the commissions were organized at the end of the dam building era and never developed clear missions. MRBC members represented thirteen federal agencies, all ten basin states, the Yellowstone Compact Commission, and the Big Blue River Compact Administration (Thorson, 1994~.
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Termination of the MRBC eliminated one of the important forums for frequent discussions and cooperative activities on Missouri River water management issues. The Missouri Basin states immediately formed the Missouri Basin States Association (MBSA)
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and Eugene Millikin (Colorado) that guarantees the upper basin states a priority to use water for irrigation: The use for navigation, in connection with the operation and maintenance of such works herein authorized for construction, of waters arising in States lying wholly or partly west of the ninety-eighth meridian shall be only such use as does not conflict with any beneficial consumptive use, present or future, in States lying wholly or partly west of the ninety-eighth meridian, of such waters for domestic, municipal, stock water, irrigation, mining, or industrial purposes.
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From page 36... ...
As the mainstem dams were completed and their reservoirs filled, the Corps assigned operation of the system to its Reservoir Control Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where it remains today. In 1953, to provide opportunities for coordination with the states and the other federal agencies, the Corps established a Coordinating Committee on Missouri River Mainstem Operations.
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No private individual or state "owns" the flow of the Missouri. Each basin state can claim an equitable share by Supreme Court degree, interstate compact, or Congressional action, but the Missouri has never been apportioned by any of these methods.
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Beginning in 1969, Congress began to enact a series of environmental protection laws that imposed new duties on federal water resources management agencies. Three key laws require the incorporation of environmental values into
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for all major federal actions that will significantly affect the quality of the environment. This act has been interpreted as to not apply to pre-1969 dam operating plans fUpper Snake River Chapter of Trout Unlimited v.
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Although it does not define specific operating priorities, the Master Manual does provide general guidance for dealing with conflicts among uses (section 9-3~: The following general approach which was developed and generally agreed upon during planning and design of the reservoirs, is observed in operation planning and in subsequent reservoir regulation procedures: First, flood control will be provided for by observation of the requirement that an upper block of this intermediate storage space in each reservoir will be vacant at the beginning of each year's flood season, with evacuation scheduled in such a manner that flood conditions will not be significantly aggravated if at all possible (this space is available for annual regu
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From page 41... ...
Since then, semiannual public meetings provide opportunities for public and governmental input. MISSOURI RIVER RESERVOIRS AND DAMS Dam and Reservoir Operations The Missouri River mainstem reservoir system consists of six major dams and reservoirs (Photos 2.1 through 2.6~.
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From page 42... ...
42 THE MISSOURI RIVER ECOSYSTEM PHOTO 2.1 Fort Peck Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library http: //images.usace.army.mil/) PHOTO 2.2 Garrison Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library)
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MISSOURI RIVER HISTORY, MANAGEMENT, AND EEGAE SETTING 43 PHOTO 2.3 Oahe Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library) PHOTO 2.4 Big Bend Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library http: //images.usace.army.mil/)
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44 THE MISSOURI RIVER ECOSYSTEM PHOTO 2.5 Fort Randall Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library http://images.usace.army.mil/) PHOTO 2.6 Gavins Point Dam (from Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library http://images.usace.army.mil/)
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, and reserves space in each reservoir for flood control. Table 2.4 shows the flood control storage volume reserved in each reservoir, and also shows additional reservoir storage in the system allocated for other project purposes.
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Fort Peck, Garrison, and Oahe dams provide about 88 percent of the total water storage capacity and thus play a significant role in supporting navigation. The multiple use zones in the reservoirs store water from year to year to support navigation when water in the annual operating zone is exhausted.
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From page 47... ...
...reserved annually for retention of normal flood flows and for annual multiple-purpose regulation of the impounded flood waters...this zone...will normally be evacuated to a predetermined level by about 1 March to provide adequate storage capacity for the flood season...evacuation of the flood control and multiple use storage capacity is scheduled to maximize service to the conservation functions.
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From page 48... ...
(3) Fort Peck 181,000 1,044 Garrison 388,000 2,354 Oahe 534,000 2,694 Big Bend 497,000 1,001 Fort Randall 293,000 1,745 Gavins Point 74,000 700 SOURCE: USACE, 1989.
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From page 49... ...
Although the Master Manual provides guidance for system and individual reservoir operations, the Corps' Reservoir Control Center staff in Omaha determines individual dam releases for all daily purposes, (or in the case of flood operations, hourly) , based upon current conditions and projected inflow in the short term.
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But even with such specificity, actual releases and storages are not prescribed outright by the Master Manual or individual reservoir regulation manuals. Instead, the Reservoir Control Center staff reviews, on a daily or hourly basis, forecasts of future rainfall and runoff and observations of current conditions in the basin (including current storages and releases, uncontrollable inflows to the river in reaches between reservoirs, and current flooding at critical points)
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From page 51... ...
The Corps' historic response to the consequences of its reservoir operations on fish and wildlife habitat has been to mitigate these consequences through a variety of means including habitat acquisition and restoration, enhancement of flows through side channels, and development of backwater areas. COMMITTEE COMMENTARY Water resources development activities in the Missouri River basin started nearly two centuries ago, soon after the Lewis and Clark expedition.
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From page 52... ...
Virtually all of the nation's environmental laws have been enacted since the initial decisions were made on Missouri River mainstem dam operations and priorities. Specific examples include the strengthened Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the Conservation, Protection, and Propagation of Endangered Species Act of 1973.
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From page 53... ...
As there have also been large social and economic changes in the Missouri Basin over the past half-century, there is a clear need for a comprehensive review of operational priorities of the Missouri River dams that better reflects twenty-first century values and scientific knowledge. The lack of a well-structured, flexible, and updated mechanism for coordinating the current interests of the Missouri River basin states, tribes, federal and state agencies, and nongovernmental parties with stakes in dam and reservoir operations represents a barrier to resolving differences and improving environmental and operational conditions.
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