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As local officials watch the river climb, some people might question whether more could have been done to protect the structures in the flood plain.

After the flood of '93, there was renewed interest in surrounding them with a super levee.

Whatever happened with that?

Levee failures were the hallmark of the great flood of 1993.

“There were rivers above flood stage at 600 different points. And there were almost a thousand levees that had been breached or topped over,” said Michael Brown, former FEMA director.

When the water overtook the Jefferson City valley, it rekindled interest in something first discussed four decades earlier. The idea was a “super levee.” It would surround the airport, waste water treatment plant, ABB manufacturing and other business operations.

“Had this levee been constructed in 1993, it would have been a lot different for the north side,” said Cindy Moses of the Army Corps of Engineers. “You wouldn’t have had the millions of gallons of raw sewage in the Missouri River. You would not have had the devastation of the airport they had.”

The project came very close to development. By the first decade of the 21^st centry, all designs and permits were completed. All that remained was for Jefferson City to come up with its share of the cost, about $6M. Then, the priorities changed.

“I think that, since Katrina and probably the War in Iraq, the Corps has diverted resources in other places,” Assistant to the City Administrator Melva Fast said.

At the same time, The Sierra Club sued the plan and a federal judge concluded the Corps of Engineers had failed to evaluate the impact of the super levee on water flow elsewhere in the river valley. Now, the Corps is poised to declare the Jefferson City valley a floodway, which would shut the door to any new construction.

“That’s gonna cause harm to the community and a lot of economic development opportunities that we’re going to have to foreclose,” said Presiding Cole County Commissioner Marc Ellinger. “Because once they make that declaration, you can’t get flood insurance.”

Technically, the super levee remains on the books as an approved project awaiting funding, but no one is holding their breath in anticipation.

Do you think the super levee should have been built in Jefferson City? Sound off below!