ST. LOUIS, April 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has the authority to open a gap in a Mississippi River levee, flooding 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland, a judge ruled Friday.
U.S. Judge Stephen Limbaugh reversed a temporary restraining order against the Army Corps of Engineers, the Delta Farm Press reported. The order had been imposed by the Missouri attorney general.
Limbaugh said a 1928 law, passed when the land that would be flooded was still forest, allows the Corps to blow a gap in the levee at Birds Point when the water level at Cairo, Ill., reaches 60.5 feet. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers, which come together at Cairo, are both rising and expected to hit that level Saturday.
Jim Pogue, a spokesman for the Corps Memphis District, said the agency is in "watch and wait" mode. But he said if the river overtops the levees or creates its own breach, millions of acres could be flooded in both Missouri and Arkansas.
"This is all about taking pressure of the system," he said. "It isn't exclusively about saving Cairo."
