Missouri River Flood Meeting Becomes “Shouting Match” Between Governors

OMAHA, NE – A meeting between the governors of Missouri River states became tense when two of the governors had a disagreement according to one observer who said the portrayal of the meeting at a press conference afterward didn’t match what he heard.

Phil Drake, a reporter for Montana Watch Dog, was allowed to sit in the room with Governor Brian Schweitzer during his conference call with the meeting in Nebraska and described what he called a “shouting match” between Schweitzer and one of the other attendees.

Governor Schweitzer invited the Montana media to listen in on the call saying that the meeting in Nebraska wasn’t open to the public.

Drake said a disagreement between Schweitzer and Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman erupted over the sharing of information and Schweitzer’s attendance at the meetings. Schweitzer, who has a background in soil science, indicated that he was the most qualified of the governors to comment on flooding issues and wanted to make a Power Point presentation to the meeting. Schweitzer alleged that the other governors weren’t “getting good information” and “weren’t basing their information on the latest data.”

Because of this Schweitzer said he “didn’t see much sense to the meeting.”

“If you show up you could bring that damn data with you and share it with us,” said Heineman who later added the meeting site did not have the capability for Power Point presentations.

“Don’t you have electricity?” Schweitzer asked.

“Six GOP governors call on Congress to borrow more money from China to build levees,” was a “headline” Schweitzer suggested to reporters for the meeting saying the other states’ governors “are more concerned with covering their backsides than managing the river.”

Schweitzer has been critical of them being behind “closed doors.” He boycotted a similar meeting earlier this year on those grounds.

The Montana Governor also rejected calls for lowering reservoir levels along the Missouri, including the level of Lake Sacajawea which North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has suggested should be lowered by two feet, saying that it could exacerbate future droughts.

Governors from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were invited to the meeting in Omaha. Governor Schweitzer and Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri joined by conference call. The State of Wyoming sent representatives to the meeting.

An email sent to Governor Jack Dalrymple’s office for comment hadn’t been acknowledge before this article was published.

Written by: Plains Daily Report on October 17, 2011.