Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill want the federal government make a move on the St. Johns Bayou levee project.
The project was proposed during the Eisenhower Administration but has been delayed and blocked ever since.
The $160 million project would plug a quarter mile hole in the Mississippi River levee near New Madrid and install a series of pumps. Farmers say it would protect them from floods, but environmentalists claim it would destroy wetlands that are vital for fish and wildlife.
Senators Blunt and McCaskill were supposed to meet with leaders from the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife on Wednesday, but that meeting was cancelled.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson is stepping down from that position. Blunt says he is considering putting a hold on her successor’s appointment until this issue is solved.
“The EPA has been outrageous in the way they have dealt with this floodway,” Blunt said. “They’ve been holding the environmental impact study so that nobody gets to see it. Every indication is that’s because, once again, the environmental impact study says that no, we should go ahead and complete this project.”
Southern Illinois leaders oppose the levee because they fear it would increase the risk of flooding across the river.