EXCLUSIVE FLOOD CONTROL ZONE

Have you ever heard the term “Exclusive Flood Control Zone?” Have any idea what it means?

Well, it means the water is so high it is about ready to spill over the top of the dam. (I can hear 1974 Johnny Cash singing; click this youtube video.) We live along the Missouri River, which is the longest tributary of the Mississippi River. There are several dams designed to control flooding. Part of a dam’s design is a spillway, which lets high water bypass the dam rather than wash it away should the water crest over the top. Of course, any release of water over the spillway is uncontrolled and would be a major disaster. Right now, you can see that the water is only a little more than a foot from the top, and occasionally splashes over.

To prevent water from flowing over the spillway (which is only intended to keep high water levels from washing out the dam), engineers manually release excess water when it gets within a few feet of the top. When the water is this high, it is in the “Exclusive Flood Control Zone.” In other words, all other criteria for controlling water flow goes out the window. The only option is to open the spigot in order to prevent “uncontrolled” flooding due to water crashing over the spillway. Two consecutive dams along the Missouri are operating this way.

As it turns out, being in the exclusive flood control zone merely means “controlled” flooding, as opposed to “uncontrolled.” As I write this, at the dam near my home, more water is being released every second than is needed to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. Try visualizing that -- it’s

a lot of water! And it makes the river several feet higher than normal. To make matters worse, they anticipate opening the spigot almost twice as much in the weeks ahead. For a news report, click this KFSY news story.

So, although the dam was built to control flooding, hundreds of my neighbors are being flooded out of their homes. And we all know now what we would rather have not learned: What being in the Exclusive Flood Control Zone really means…