OXFORD — Except for events of 1927, few in Mississippi would be hearing or reading anything about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today.
Flooding along the Mississippi River Valley that year was the worst ever, with “ever” defined as the 100 years the river had been serving steamboat commerce. “Ever” doesn’t mean since the meandering streams formed at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.
But by 1927, much of the area bordering the main channel and the countless rivers and arteries that feed it, made fertile by overflows during the aforementioned thousands of years, were in production. As such, they were habitat for humans and their farm fields, as well as their factories, schools and homes. The river was America’s highway.
Then came the Flood of 1927. It killed 246 people outright, destroyed 137,000 buildings and left 700,000 people homeless.
Before 1927, flood control and stream management were considered local matters. It bears repeating: Not one penny of federal money was spent by the federal government on flood preparation or, for that matter, flood relief.
But one thing that did become clear: The hodgepodge of levees and revetments designed and built state-to-state, county-to-county and city-to-city didn’t work.
So Congress acted. The Flood Control Act of 1928 was passed, commissioning the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. Congress looked around for some entity to handle the responsibility. The nation had an army within the Army. They were engineers, usually tasked with military projects — building or blowing up bridges, designing and building airfields and fortifications. There was no war under way, so the Army’s engineering corps was assigned an expanded civil mission, one that would eventually eclipse its battlefield assignments.
An initial step was creating the Waterways Experiment Station, which actually opened that same year in Vicksburg. Scientists and engineers, most of them nonmilitary, were hired to engage in the study of “hydraulics,” specifically the dynamics of fluids in motion. WES, which has morphed into many additional missions and is the Army Engineering Research and Development Center today, began studying, modeling.
The Mississippi River Commission was also formed. It would be headed by an Army engineer but would be composed of presidential appointees.
For decades, the plans have continually been designed and, when funded, built under the auspices of Corps of Engineers districts up and down the Mississippi.
In those early years, engineering concepts were mostly about muscle. Just as farmers were prone to use the most powerful chemicals (DDT) to wipe out any threat to their crops, early Corps of Engineers’ designs were keyed to building dams and reservoirs. A specialty was “channelization,” meaning meanders were straightened and trees were bulldozed from banks.
About 25 years ago, the corps saw the environmental light. Just as enlightened farmers now use the least intrusive methods to manage their cropland, the corps initiated self-check processes (with boosts from Congress via the Clean Water Act and otherwise) to consider alternative designs more in harmony with nature. The corps now counts almost as many ecologists and preservationists among its employees as dragline and bulldozer operators.
Still, it hasn’t been easy to forgive and forget. Suing the corps has been a career for many attorneys, including those employed by other federal entities such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and many others.
The Mississippi River — not called “mighty” for nothing — is in the process of giving the Flood Control Act of 1928 its greatest test yet.
It’s only natural that over the decades those who have lived in, planned and designed floodways will feel aggrieved. Their attitude is similar to those of us in Mississippi who regard the four great reservoirs — Sardis, Enid, Grenada and Arkabutla — purely as public recreation areas. It’s easy to forget the only reason they exist is to serve a water management role in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project.
In normal years, the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t make much news. In times of crisis, such as today, their operations gain a lot of visibility and a lot of attention, much of it unfavorable. That’s natural, too. But at least we should understand these folks have been given a mission that “complicated” doesn’t begin to describe.
Managing the Mississippi effectively for commerce and flood control was a job the corps was given 83 years ago. That the situation would be worse without their efforts is little comfort. They are our Rodney Dangerfields who “get no respect.”
• Charlie Mitchell is assistant dean at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism. Contact him at cmitchell43@yahoo.com.
