By Steve Brawner

© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

May 30, 2019

When your state’s governor can make this statement – “This is a flood of historic magnitude. It surpasses all Arkansas River flooding in our recorded history” – then that’s what you write about, even on the opinion page.

If you live in one of the affected areas, or if you’ve seen any of the pictures or footage, you know why Gov. Asa Hutchinson is calling the flooding “historic.” It brings to mind the Flood of 1927, when the Mississippi River overflowed and the state was hit with tumultuous rainfall. Thirty-six counties were affected, and some areas were 30 feet underwater, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

The amount of damage this year isn’t known because the damage is still being done. We’ll have to wait for the water to recede. As of this writing Thursday, the river isn’t even finished cresting.

But good could come from this if the state gains a new appreciation of the importance of its rivers and the need to respect them, control them when possible, and recognize the limits of that control.

The state is blessed with a network of rivers, including one of the world’s great ones, the Mississippi, and one of the country’s largest, the Arkansas. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arkansas River is the nation’s sixth longest at 1,469 miles and has the ninth largest drainage area.

Along the Arkansas River and across the state, many levees built by the Corps of Engineers last century were turned over to local district levee boards. In many cases, as board members aged and stopped serving, no one replaced them. Other levees were built by private entities.

No one was really responsible for some of those levees, which meant they often were not maintained. They were big mounds of dirt that seemed to be doing their jobs and just became part of the landscape. When the Big Ditch levee in Lonoke County failed and left more than 100 homes flooded, local officials didn’t even know who built it, much less who was responsible for it.

In 2009, a legislative audit report said the state should take greater responsibility for levees, but lawmakers didn’t pass any legislation in response. Then a levee in Perry County failed in 2015 after years of neglect. Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, sponsored legislation requiring county clerks to submit levee reports to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

Since then, some of the levee boards have been reconstituted, and some have not. The situation is better, but it’s not where it needs to be.

Inadequate levee oversight and maintenance isn’t the only issue facing Arkansas’ bodies of water. Officials have long known about the vulnerability of the Three Rivers area at the confluence of the Mississippi, Arkansas and White rivers in southeast Arkansas. Manmade structures prevent the merging of the Arkansas and White, allowing navigation to continue. If the system fails, the Arkansas River could be closed to navigation for a year. It’s unknown how much this year’s flood threatens that area.

Congress has finally authorized the Corps of Engineers to begin work on a $180.3 million long-term fix. Pre-construction work has started, but surveying is impossible because the site has been under water since March. However, the money still must be appropriated by Congress, which can’t happen until around 2022.

Infrastructure brings Republicans and Democrats together in two ways: They agree we need to invest in it, and they don’t like figuring out how to pay for it.

Still, in this year’s state legislative session, lawmakers passed a $300 million highway program, with two-thirds of that waiting to be approved by voters in 2020. Additional money will be spent on city and county roads.

The state has other types of infrastructure, including its waterways. And the principle remains the same: If you build something, or use it, you must maintain it.

Even then, you might have to recognize the limits of what you can do when facing a flood of historic magnitude.