(The following story by Christina Crippes appeared on The Hawk Eye website on August 1.)
BURLINGTON, Iowa — Add the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway to the list of supporters of a comprehensive plan for the levees along the upper Mississippi.
With five different routes out of service for a portion of time after suffering flood damage, BNSF reported to its investors that it incurred capital costs of about $70 million related to the disaster.
“That would have been on multiple routes, and certainly a substantial portion of that would have been in the Gulfport area, but how much I don’t know,” said BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg.
Since the floodwater has receded, Forsberg said the railway would commit to having a senior engineering officer from BNSF personally involved with future discussions with both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the local levee district. Forsberg said the railway will act as both members of the local communities and as property owners.
“We are very interested in avoiding future flood damage, so we do intend to be involved in those future discussions for the mutual benefit of all the organizations involved,” Forsberg said.
After the Flood of 1993, the Corps sought funding to do a study on a comprehensive plan for the upper Mississippi levee systems, which are each operated by individual drainage districts. In 1999, Congress authorized funding for the study, which was completed in February 2008.
The result of the study was that none of the recommendations have a high enough cost-benefit ratio to warrant federal interest, according to Corps Rock Island branch chief of planning Roger Perk. He said, though, the Corps report states if there were an interest in a comprehensive plan, it would recommend one that built the levees up to a 500-year level, or had a 0.2 percent chance of flooding annually.
Forsberg said many economic goods depend on being able to move through the local rail route, which means there is a vital interstate commerce interest involved in helping to protect the lines.
Because the flood-damaged levees are federally maintained through the Corps, Forsberg said the railway’s involvement would be to provide useful information that helps make the case for Congress on how vital the rail lines are.
“I don’t know that we would be involved financially, but in terms of providing information, I could see how we would probably help provide useful information to help the community make the case with Congress,” Forsberg said.