
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120221
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CONSERVATION GROUP OPPOSES FIXING LEVEES

The levees along the flooded Mississippi River should not be rebuilt because they only create a false sense of security, a conservation group said Wednesday.

Kevin Coyle, president American Rivers, said that, instead, the Clinton administration should develop long-term flood management policies for the country's major rivers and designate natural flood plains into which excess water could spill from the river during heavy rains.

American Rivers, a Washington-based environmental group, has for years argued for returning rivers to a more natural state.

The conservation group urged the Clinton administration to replace the patchwork of levees along the upper Mississippi and its tributaries with natural flood-control alternatives like wetlands and flood plains that would temporarily absorb flood waters.

by CNB