A curious agenda push

From Alec Rawls writing at Watts Up With That:

Is the Corps of Engineers forcibly reverting floodplain to its natural state?
That�s the eye-popping thesis suggested by Joe Herring at American Thinker, and his prima facie evidence, while thin, is also hard to get around. The key fact is this:

On February 3, 2011, a series of e-mails from Ft. Pierre SD Director of Public Works Brad Lawrence sounded the alarm loud and clear. In correspondence to the headquarters of the American Water Works Association in Washington, D.C., Lawrence warned that �the Corps of Engineers has failed thus far to evacuate enough water from the main stem reservoirs to meet normal runoff conditions. This year�s runoff will be anything but normal.�

For the why, Herring quotes the Corps� Master Water Control Manual:

Releases at higher-than-normal rates early in the season that cannot be supported by runoff forecasting techniques is inconsistent with all System purposes other than flood control. All of the other authorized purposes depend upon the accumulation of water in the System rather than the availability of vacant storage space. [Emphasis added.]

Originally, these other purposes were water supply, river navigation and recreation, none of which are served by failing to leave enough reservoir space for normal runoff in a high runoff year. But through thirty years of environmentalist domination of the federal bureaucracy, additional purposes have gained ever higher priority. The Missouri River should be �natural�:

The Clinton administration threw its support behind the change, officially shifting the priorities of the Missouri River dam system from flood control, facilitation of commercial traffic, and recreation to habitat restoration, wetlands preservation, and culturally sensitive and sustainable biodiversity.

Herring even quotes a Corps biologist celebrating the current flood:

The former function of the river is being restored in this one-year event. In the short term, it could be detrimental, but in the long term it could be very beneficial.�

That would be quite the class-action lawsuit. It will be interesting to see when the smoking gun is leaked -- and that is when and not if. More good stuff at the website and the various links. The 50+ comments at both Watts Up With That and American Thinker are both worth a detailed read. This one caught my eye:

The libs began their masked infiltration into our government through the environmentalist movement. There handiwork is now coming to the fore and it is not pretty. Have you noticed the Libs and Obama are not that worried about Middle American natural disasters since they are of their choosing or happen to people who do not vote Democrat? (Kentucky tornadoes last spring, flooding in Midwest, Joplin tornadoes, Alabama tornadoes)
But Katrina...we can't spend enough money on that!