Mississippi river levee to be blown up -- Judge rules it OK, despite vast damage it will cause (flood waters will divert over New Madrid fault line)

The decision is in the hands of a federal judge who heard arguments over a plan to intentionally break a Mississippi River levee.

Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. heard arguments from attorneys for Missouri and the Army Corps of Engineers Thursday on a corps proposal to blow a 2-mile-wide hole through the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri. The corps says breaking the levee would ease waters rising around the upstream town of Cairo, Ill., near the confluence of the swollen Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Missouri says the rush of water would ruin prime farmland, flood about 90 homes and displace 200 people.

Near the beginning of the hearing, Limbaugh said he would expedite the case given the circumstances.

Koster's legal team argued the Corps' action would violate Missouri's Clean Water Act and cause "certain damage" to the state and its people.

A Corps economist testified a levee failure here in Cairo could result in $265 million in damage, although the Corps acknowledged it's still holding.

Judge Stephen Limbaugh took the motion under advisement just after 7 p.m. Thursday, and Koster says the judge has a tough call to make.

"It's a hard set of facts and there are a lot of interests that have to be weighed on both sides of the state line and throughout the federal justice system, said Koster. I think the judge took in the information. I think he's got a very difficult decision that he has to make overnight." (read more)

This post was reader contributed.