Reconnecting the Missouri River Floodplain

The first significant flood of Ryan’s life was in 1993. “The flood of ’93 was bad, and the flood of 2011 was a little worse,” he said.  “But the flood of 2019 was exponentially worse than all the other floods combined. I live right on the bluff, and it was water from bluff to bluff for 200 days—and damage beyond belief."

That’s when he realized that they had to do something different for the community now, and for the future. 

Devastating Impacts on the Community and the Agriculture Industry

The extreme flooding that the northwestern side of the state experienced in the spring of 2019 was devastating to the local communities, businesses and the agriculture industry. 

The Missouri River breached over 100 levees, inundating 1.2 million acres, damaging infrastructure including farms, railroads, Interstate highways and closing approximately 470 roads. Missouri River levee L-536, in Atchison and Holt Counties, was breached in 7 locations alone—and suffered significant damages.

At the time of the flood, the current levee, which was originally constructed in the 1950s, and could be at risk for future breaches if reconstructed in the same alignment. 

The Atchison County Levee District in consultation with the impacted landowners, determined that a levee setback—moving the levee inland to allow more room for floodwater—combined with a modern design, was in the best interest of their community now and for future generations.

Bringing the Partners to the Table

The young ACLD board recruited help from a host of partners—including The Nature Conservancy—and support from previous generations within its community to partner with the landowners and get the project done.

Barbara Charry, floodplains and nature-based solutions strategy manager for The Nature Conservancy in Missouri was brought into the conversation. 

"One of the things that TNC can do as a nonprofit is to convene people and so that's what we did," says Barbara. "We brought together our partners from across the state with the levee district and the USACE to set up a partner meeting in St. Joseph, Missouri in August of 2019."

The groups identified a lot of barriers and problems and yet there was a lot of excitement and interest in making something happen. "All partners played a critical role in a variety of ways to figure out a problem, find a funding source, find a technical solution, find a political solution and move things forward," she says.

The setback benefits the local community, those downstream and the whole ecosystem that surrounds it. “It’s about preserving nature and coexisting with it. We both benefit when it’s done correctly,” says Ryan.

“We want this to be a pilot project, to show other communities that it’s possible, and set a precedent so it will be easier in the future,” he says.

"This is an incredible demonstration project that other landowners and levee districts up and down the Missouri River can look to as one of the tools in the toolbox to help with the catastrophic flooding that we're all facing right now on the Missouri River," says Barbara. 

This project is teaching the complexity of this type of system and the pathway forward. "Our intention is to take the information here and work with all of our partners to improve those programs so that it becomes easier for other levee districts to make this choice in the future," she says.

Looking Toward the Future

New levee construction began in August 2020 and is expected to be completed by January. “We couldn’t have done it without the help from our community, our partners and from TNC,” Ryan says.

For Barbara, the project brings a lot of optimism about the future. "There are so many people out there working away in different agencies, and landowners who are willing to take a chance and do something different," she says. "It gives me a lot of hope for the future."

Ryan agrees and for him, this is more than just a levee project. “We just had twins, a boy and a girl, and we named our son River James. So yeah, this river means everything to me,” he says.