Opinion: Protecting the confluence floodplain demands permanent action

08.September.2025

J. Michael Checkett, Executive Director of the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance

Originally published Sep 7, 2025 by St. Louis Post-Dispatch

See Original Published Op-Ed here and here

St. Charles City Council’s recent decision to enact a one-year moratorium on data center development within city limits and the Elm Point well field district is a commendable step toward protecting public health and environmental integrity. But let us be clear: a temporary pause is not a solution. It is a warning bell — and one that must be answered with permanent protections and expanded safeguards for the entire 100-year floodplain.

Project Cumulus, the proposed data center development within the Confluence floodplain, exemplifies the kind of short-sighted industrial expansion that threatens our region’s ecological health, water safety, and flood resilience.

Located less than a mile from our Jay Henges Wetland Education and Conservation Center, the project could introduce hazardous substances into a groundwater well field already plagued by contamination. It would require raising land with fifteen feet of fill, displacing floodwaters, and increasing flooding into neighboring properties. And it would do so with little transparency, no clear emergency response plan, and no accountability for long-term infrastructure costs.

This is not just a local issue — it is a regional crisis in the making.

The Confluence floodplain is a living system, not a blank slate. It supports migratory birds, fish, amphibians, and people. It sustains agriculture, recreation, and clean water. And it has been recognized by the Missouri Department of Conservation as a Wetlands Conservation Opportunity Area of continental significance. More than 40% of the nation’s waterfowl use the Mississippi River corridor during spring and fall migration.

We also want to commend the local residents, landowners, and community advocates who have stood up, spoken out, and demanded accountability. Your voices have been instrumental in halting this project’s momentum and shining a light on the risks development in the floodplain poses. Your commitment to protecting the Confluence is a powerful reminder that grassroots action matters — and that the people who live closest to the land often understand it best. You are not just defending property; you are defending legacy, ecology, and the public trust.

To allow industrial development in this floodplain is to gamble with irreplaceable natural capital and financial cost. Once destroyed, filled and paved, these lands can never be restored. The ecological value lost is permanent. The future flood risk amplified and irreversible. And the burden of cleanup and emergency response will fall not on developers, but on taxpayers and neighbors.

One must only look back to 1993 to illustrate the immense cost to governments and taxpayers alike. On July 30 of that year, the Mississippi River crested in St. Louis, nearly 20 feet above flood stage. The flood inundated more than 20 million acres across nine states, destroyed 50,000 homes, caused the loss of 50 lives and up to $20 billion in damages. It was the costliest and most devastating flood in U.S. history and much of it was in our backyard.

Levees failed. The river reclaimed its floodplain with terrifying force. Forty percent of St. Charles County was flooded — yet despite the scale of destruction and tremendous cost, we appear to have forgotten. Development in flood-prone areas continues, levees and flood plain fill push further into the flood plain.

The 1993 flood should have been a turning point. So should the floods of 1995, 2001, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and more. How many times must Interstate 70 and Mid Rivers Mall be shut down due to flooding before we take notice?

We must do better. The St. Charles moratorium should be made permanent — not just within city limits or well fields, but across all lands within the 100-year floodplain. This is not anti-development; it is pro-resilience. It’s common sense.

Our country needs data centers and development for the future. However, there are more appropriate sites for data centers, warehouses and strip malls, sites that do not compromise public water supplies, strain infrastructure, push flooding burdens on others or threaten protected wetlands.

The Confluence is a national treasure. Let us treat it as such. Let us prioritize long-term stewardship over short-term profit. Let us uphold the vision of a protected 100-year floodplain — for clean water, for wildlife, and for future generations.

Anything less is a betrayal of the land, the people, and the legacy we’ve been entrusted to protect.

Checkett is executive director of the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance.