Daugaard willing to sue over river issue
Yesterday, Gov. Dennis Daugaard threatened to sue if the Army Corps of Engineers releases more water from Missouri River reservoirs to help downstream barge navigation, KCCR Radio reports.
Daugaard, the state’s congressional delegation and other upstream states oppose a request by downstream states to increase the flows from the Missouri River to help with barge traffic on the Mississippi River. Downstream states are pressuring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do that.
Daugaard says the issue could go to court and he would support that. He says the Corps has no legal authority to move water from the Missouri to the Mississippi to help navigation.
Read it here (until the page gets replaced tomorrow with new content).
In his conference call this morning with reporters, Sen. John Thune said he believes the Army Corps of Engineers’ rules and procedures forbid it from releasing more water, as downstream states wants. He noted briefly the irony that he’s defending the Corps’ procedures now, a year and a half after lambasting them during the 2011 Missouri River flood.
