Voodoo Engineering

New plans for a levee in St. Charles County raise concerns about flooding in Illinois and the completion of Missouri's popular Katy Trail

Comments (0) By C.D. Stelzer Wednesday, Feb 9 2000

C.D. Stelzer

Grafton, Ill., Mayor Bobbie Amburg: "It bothers me that nobody bothered to inform the people on the Illinois side of the river that this was going on."

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The Corps claims that no communication problem has existed between the two agencies. "The Missouri DNR was notified, as were all the proper state and local authorities," says Charles Camillo, a spokesman for the Corps. "The project will not affect in any way the development of the Katy Trail," he adds. As for the Corps' intention to remove the 40,000 cubic yards of gravel from the embankment, Camillo says, the DNR "can still put the ballast back on top." The Corps spokes-man refused to hazard a guess as to whether this would add to the price of the project or who would pay for it.

Asked how the Corps could have moved forward on the levee project without first consulting with the state about the matter, Crabtree says: " I don't know. It's pretty sad. Somewhere along the line, communications fell apart. We've been working very closely with the Consolidated North County Levee District and with the Corps of Engineers since the flood of '93. So it's a little perplexing to me that another branch of the Corps wouldn't acknowledge our ownership."