Press Releases

Yesterday, Congressman Jason Smith sent a letter to President Obama condemning new opposition to the St. John’s Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project, and calling for the project’s completion. Congressman Smith wrote to answer letters sent to President Obama Tuesday by environmental groups and “local leaders” calling for the president and the EPA to exercise an obscure “Clean Water Act Veto” to kill the project.

“If President Obama vetoes the St. John’s/New Madrid Floodway project it will erase the efforts of generations of Southeast Missourians who have worked to complete this project since Congress authorized it in 1954. This project is vital to protect the lives and property of the people who live and work in my district.  It is obvious that people in Illinois have been lied to about this project by outsiders who aren’t from the region and who would like to see all of the flood plain on both sides of the river revert back to bird and fish habitat.”                                                                                                   

The letter to President Obama said in part:

“I recently reviewed several letters that were written to you [Tuesday] by “local leaders” who “oppose the New Madrid Levee.” The vast majority of these “local leaders” do not live in the affected area, or are not from Missouri. The “local leaders” that are from Missouri all appear to be from the Kansas City Area, and are certainly not from the Southeast Missouri Bootheel.”

It went on to say:

“I ask that you not interfere by derailing this project that has finally begun to show some momentum. Concerns from individuals in Southern Illinois who believe that somehow this project will endanger them with flooding are unfounded and not based in science. The Corps of Engineers has repeatedly determined that this project creates no additional risk of flooding to upstream or downstream communities.”

The full text of Congressman Smith’s letter to the president can be found here.

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