News Analysis/Confused and bemused about the yes-no-maybe 'spring rise'

News releases from both sides of the issue are creating a flood of their own.

On Monday, March 24, Attorney General Jay Nixon announced he would pursue a temporary stay of the spring pulse on the Missouri River, originally scheduled for last week.

Nixon filed a similar lawsuit in 2006, which was knocked down by a Federal judge in Minnesota.

In the news release, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt said the release of additional water so recently after devastating floods in the southeast part of the state was like "fighting a forest fire with gasoline."

The Army Corps of Engineers had announced earlier they were taking things day by day, and hadn't yet made a final decision.

On Tuesday, March 25, U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton turned down Nixon's request for a stay in the morning; judge at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals turned him down later that afternoon.

Nixon's office issued a press release decrying the pulse and speculating on the damage it might cause to already-waterlogged southeast Missouri.

The Army Corps of Engineers issued a press release of its own, announcing early Tuesday evening they would proceed with the pulse beginning at about midnight Tuesday.

And right on schedule, the spring pulse began when water flow at Gavins Point Dam, near the border of South Dakota and Nebraska, was increased from 13,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 18,000 cfs. The Corps announced the pulse would last about two days at the higher level, and then decrease 1,000 cfs per day, tapering back to normal on about April 1.

Wednesday, March 26, was a quiet day for news releases. It seemed the pulse would proceed uneventfully.

That's not quite how things worked out.

On Thursday morning, March 27, the office of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt issued a press release praising the Corps' agreement to "reduce" the pulse, and repeating his initial argument that the pulse isn't necessary in the first place. Blunt's release pointedly questioned any benefit to the pallid sturgeon.

The governor's press release was followed closely by yet another press release, this time from Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, who is acting governor while Blunt is on a junket to China, in which Kinder thanked the Corps for "responding to my concerns" and "granting my request" to stop the pulse. Kinder didn't mention the pallid sturgeon at all.

Not to be outdone, the Corps weighed in with a press release late Thursday morning, citing "comments received over the past days regarding the pulse," without mentioning Blunt, Nixon or Kinder, and explaining that adjustments in dam flows on the Kansas River, Wakarusa River and Little Platte River would be reduced to compensate for the already-released water from Gavins Point, thus "eliminating" the pulse's effects downstream from Kansas City.

The Corps said the Fish and Wildlife Service had concluded the reduction was "not a concern for the sturgeon because of the existence of the natural spring rises in the reach."

Although the Corps of Engineers has had the authority to conduct the two annual spring pulse releases in March and May for several years, it has taken place just once in the past, in May 2006. There were no releases in 2007; the pulse scheduled for May 2008 has already been cancelled.

While there is disagreement over the benefit to the nearly-extinct pallid sturgeon in some quarters, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes the increase in the flow of warmer water in March, followed by the colder water in summer is beneficial not only to the sturgeon, but to two shorebirds -- the least tern and piping plover -- which are also on the endangered species list.

For now, the controversy -- and the flood of press releases -- appears to be at an end.

But as sports fans everywhere agree -- there's always next year.

Contact Kathy Fairchild at marshallhealth@socket.net