Memphis District St. Francis Basin (SFB) Partners, Stakeholders and Project Management, members of the district's Hydrology and Hydraulics branch, and district Engineering and Construction managers traveled to the Fisher Delta Research Center in Portageville, Missouri for their annual partnering meeting on Mar. 30, 2021.
The Memphis District Team meets annually with SFB partners and stakeholders to provide current basin status updates.
"A complex system like the St. Francis Basin (SFB) requires keeping Partners and Stakeholders informed and actively engaged," Project Manager Jairus Stroupe said. "With a footprint of over 7,200 square miles and being larger than the Mississippi Delta, this system's federally authorized features include 440 miles of levees, 1,265 miles of channels, 38 floodgates/culverts, two pumping plants (the largest USACE-owned plant in the world, the W.G. Huxtable Pumping Plant), five control structures, and one siphon."
Stroupe said this meeting also provides an excellent time for collaboration and discussion amongst the entire team, both internal and external to the Corps.
The current St. Francis Basin maintenance and construction projects totaling over $140 million were highlights of the meeting.
"Also highlighted was a three-year plan of maintenance projects totaling over $175 million," Stroupe continued. "The district also provided further updates to the partners and stakeholders concerning the St. Francis Future Management Plan (a strategic deliverable for the Memphis District). The St. Francis Future Management Plan is designed to get more' bang for the buck' throughout the SFB in spite of funding shortfalls on an annual basis."
The presentation also included the Memphis District's Dr. Holly Enlow and Michael Lamport, describing recent efforts made toward sedimentation modeling and forecasting within the SFB. The district utilized funding through alternative funding sources to conduct sedimentation modeling and forecasting. The alternative sources were the Regional Sediment Management Program (RMS) and Mapping, Modeling, and Consequences Center (MMC).
To wrap up, partners and stakeholders discussed and provided information regarding items essential to their area of responsibility.
Thank you to all involved in making this meeting the success it was.
Meetings like these are crucial to the ongoing successful partnerships the district has in its area of responsibility. Without these relationships, the district couldn't execute its many critical missions designed to serve this great nation.