Metro East businesses and homeowners have been living on borrowed time.
Five levees along the Mississippi River from Alton to Columbia, Ill., are inadequate to protect low-lying communities from what’s called a 100-year flood. They have been deficient for years. But this summer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will release a preliminary updated map naming those areas as a “special flood hazard” — a designation that creates significant economic risk for the region. It is absolutely essential that the designation be modified before the map is finalized in 2009.

Levee repairs won’t happen overnight. But the region took a substantial step on the road to protection last week when Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 2052.
The new law, sponsored by state Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, was a major priority for area legislators and political leaders. Now it’s crucial for the governments of Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties to establish flood-prevention districts that, with minimal staff and maximum expertise, will assess a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for repairs.
The alternative is to depend on a congressional appropriations process that could take decades to come up with the cash. During that time, designation as a special flood hazard would cost businesses and property owners millions of dollars in extra flood insurance premiums; the cost of flood insurance would jump by 400 percent.
The designation also would limit the ability of existing companies to expand by making it difficult or impossible to finance new construction. And it would prevent new businesses from locating in the region.
Even worse, it could put about 156,000 lives at risk should the unthinkable happen and a major Mississippi River flood occur. That’s the number of people who live in areas “protected” by those inadequate levees. Many of them live in poverty. A major flood could produce new versions of the scenes of devastation and suffering that made America cringe in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Fortunately, there’s still time to avoid some of the worst consequences. The federal flood map to be released this summer is just a draft; it probably won’t be finalized until next year.
In the meantime, Metro East communities have been working to show the federal government that they have a plan in place to repair the levees quickly. That would allow them to keep flood insurance rates down and keep the door open to business expansion.
But a plan won’t prevent another major flood from occurring or protect people whose lives would be at risk if it did. Only repairs to the levees can do that. Parts of the Metro East flood-control system date back to the 1930s. River water is seeping underneath the levees. Old pumps and drainage tiles must be replaced. Making those repairs could cost as much as $180 million. But 65 percent of the cost eventually could be recovered if Congress appropriates funds to pay for the work — as it should.
Some money already has been set aside for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do the levee repairs. But the corps has a $51 billion backlog of authorized projects. In New Orleans, the corps’ levee construction and repairs were carried out sporadically because funding came in fits and starts. As a result, even though the risks were well documented, when the hurricane struck, protection was inadequate.
By signing SB 2052, Mr. Blagojevich put Metro East government leaders — who so often have been at the mercy of priorities set by the powerful block of state legislators who represent the Chicago region — in control of their own destiny. That’s the best place for them to be if the levees are going to be repaired quickly and effectively.

This Post-Dispatch file photo shows a flood wall on the St. Louis side of the Mississippi River. Similar structures in East St. Louis are in desperate need of repair.