In our view: Reservoirs make sense

July 14, 2007 06:27 pm

— Had Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas and Northwest Oklahoma seen a modest-sized, off-stream impoundment of between five and 40 acres built in each of those states during the last year or so, we can only wonder just what effect the water retainment efforts might have had on the flooding experienced in Joplin. Not to mention what they would have had on the devastating waters that forced evacuations and destroyed homes and businesses in Miami, Okla.; Coffeyville, Kan.; and neighboring cities.
Certainly the torrential rains that whipsawed the region and left thousands of homes and businesses under water or caked with mud and muck were unexpected and, according to some older residents, were unprecedented in the past five decades.
One thing that strategically placed confinements might have done is to capture a significant amount of the runoff from the 15-plus inches of rain that drenched the region over a few weeks. The lakes or ponds would have filled up and, with careful management of releases, might have mitigated, although perhaps not prevented, the destructive floodwaters.
Such water impoundments could provide reservoirs to serve the Joplin, Miami and Pittsburg, Kan., areas in times of drought. They would permit economic and population growth in the Tri-State Area, and enhance Joplin as the regional hub for retail, medical, industrial and trucking industries.
Several lakes or ponds of, say, five to 15 feet in depth and covering 40 acres or more might meet the water needs of Joplin and the region over the next decade.
Make no mistake, this must be a regional effort.
The alternative to having a series of impoundments serving the corners of three states could be constructing pipelines to Joplin and other communities from Grand Lake in Oklahoma and Table Rock, Stockton and Truman lakes in Missouri. But what would happen in serious drought conditions when everyone needs water and those lakes are being pressured?
Fifty years ago, as we have stated before, a group of civic leaders proposed the building of a lake on Spring River or Shoal Creek. Such an impoundment could have been built, we suspect, for a fraction of what it would cost today. The fact is that the cost won’t get any cheaper.
Building reservoirs near Joplin, Miami and Pittsburg unquestionably would be expensive. Perhaps one big containment near Joplin might suffice. But can the region afford not to do something, given finite water resources and the intensifying pressure put on them by commercial, industrial and residential growth?