Missouri Sues to Prevent Demolition of Levee

The Midwest is keeping a nervous eye on its levees—and now on the courts as well. Missouri's attorney general today filed suit in federal court to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from blowing up a levee on the Mississippi River, reports Reuters. The corps is preparing to detonate the levee in southern Missouri to relieve river pressure and prevent massive flooding in populated areas downstream, specifically Cairo, Illinois.

The problem is that strategy would flood 130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri, and the state has questioned the corps' legal authority to go ahead with the plan. "I don't want one person in the corps to make decision ... without even seeing the area," AG Chris Koster tells Fox News. "We need to make sure flooding all these acres of farmland is the only option." The corps, meanwhile, postponed its final decision on the plan until tomorrow, notes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (More Missouri stories.)