Friday, June 6, ORVA learned that the highly-anticipated Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Management Study was suspended due to a limited amount of study funding available.
The project team (Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Study Team) was notified that the study will not receive any funding through the Fiscal Year 2025 Work Plan and that previous President Budget funds received during the fiscal year must be returned to the United States Treasury.
The study has completed critical engineering and planning work for the Nation to provide a more resilient Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) Project in the future. The recent high and low water events are creating stressors on the MR&T system as a whole. The critical work of the project team and the initial results of the study have proposed solutions to the future operation of structures within the MR&T for the continued successful flood risk management and navigational security. The study is near completion; the continuance of funding is necessary to fully develop a workable plan. The results of this plan will deliver recommendations to the Chief of Engineers and to Congress.
ORVA fully supports this study. In the meantime, however, this critical study has been paused. (Not canceled; but paused.) The study will resume once additional funding is received.
The MR&T Project was authorized by the 1928 Flood Control Act. In the wake of the devastating 1927 flood, it was deemed necessary to put into place a comprehensive, unified system of public works within the lower Mississippi Valley that would provide unprecedented flood risk management and an equally efficient navigation channel. The MR&T project has four major features: levees and floodwalls, channel improvement and stabilization, tributary basin improvements, and floodways. Together, these features work to provide flood risk management and navigation, and foster environmental protection and enhancement.
