We hope everyone is reading the news about the Midwest flooding. Despite the folks (like this) who tell you such flooding is what we can avoid by ignoring Vista Farms, this is what will happen by ignoring Vista Farms. Almost all of the levees in the Midwest that are failing are agricultural levees that have been identified by the USACE as being deficient, and none are the levee that Vista Farms proposes. So, wake up! We, and the facts, are telling you that the Vista Farms levees, the ones that protect our sewer plant and Heathwood Hall School, are deficient, too. In Iowa and Missouri they ignored these deficiencies and look what happened. To date, the City of Columbia and Richland County have similarly ignored the inadequacy of the existing levee system. Incredibly, Columbia is still raising sewer rates to construct a new $35 million upgrade (at the latest “revised” estimate) to the Metro plant. In the Midwest, the recently built, certified levees are not failing (yet they can overtop if the flood exceeds a design standard that is less than Vista Farms’), but the old unrepaired levees are simply failing. So read what’s happening, but don’t think that this is proof we should do nothing; on the contrary it is proof we have to do something to protect our existing assets.
And while you’re at it: Look at all the not-flooded workplaces and infrastructure like the Quincy, IL water and sewer plants that are in serious jeopardy due to the flood. Like the Columbia Metro sewer plant, they believed they were somehow exempt or above the risks of flooding. So they sit there now, idle without access and/or without infrastructure support. How long would Columbia last without sewer? How much would it cost to fix? Or how much worse would the Congaree be with raw sewage dumped in it because the plant could not run?
Yes, floods are disasters. You can either prepare for them and be known as prepared, or you can suffer them and be known as victims who seek a lot of help from their friends. What do you call the people who know it can happen and do nothing?
1 comment:
Alternatively, we could decide NOT to build in the floodplain, recognizing that 100-year and 500-year floods happen moore frequently than every 100 and 500 years... and leave the floodplain to function as it should. When we humans attempt to "manage" nature, we frequently come to realize how challenging that task truly is. It is a floodplain. That means taht it is meant to flood. When you build levees, you just force those floodwaters elsewhere, at a higher velocity. Are we going to "engineer" all the the US waterways because our desire for the almighty dollar is stronger than our understanding of natural riverine processes?
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