The Basin and Its Development

The Missouri's basin extends from the Rocky Mountains eastward across the northern plain and prairie states to the basin of the Mississippi. It covers 529,300 square miles (1,370,880 km 2 ), 98 per cent of which is in the United States, the rest in Canada. Roughly one-sixth of the 48 contiguous states of the United States is drained by the Missouri.

Most of the basin is sparsely populated, but there a number of cities with a population greater than 100,000. The largest is Denver, with 554,636.

Agriculture prevails in most of the basin. Droughts, however, occur frequently, for rainfall is limited and unreliable; and floods cause loss of life and property.

To protect against these natural hazards and to promote greater economic growth, Congress authorized the Missouri River basin development program in 1944. This multibillion-dollar project is based on the Pick-Sloan Plan for harnessing the river and developing its basin. It is a compromise between separate plans submitted by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Corps of Engineers. The entire project, involving the work of scores of state and federal agencies, is directed by the Missouri Basin Interagency Committee (MBIAC), consisting of 10 state governors and seven representatives of federal departments and agencies.

The principal goals of the program are to store and conserve water by means of dams; to control floods, mainly by regulating the flow at the dams but also by building levees and making channel improvements; to provide irrigation water and improved water supplies for home and industrial uses; to generate hydroelectric power; to improve navigation on the Missouri; and to provide public recreation facilities.