Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program

Pick–Sloan Plan for Missouri River Basin, 1992.

The Pick–Sloan Missouri Basin Program, formerly called the Missouri River Basin Project, was initially authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, which approved the general comprehensive plan for the conservation, control, and use of water resources in the entire Missouri River Basin.

The intended beneficial uses of these water resources include flood control, aids to navigation, irrigation, supplemental water supply, power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies, stream-pollution abatement, sediment control, preservation and enhancement of fish and wildlife, and creation of recreation opportunities.

It derives its name from the authors of the program -- Lewis A. Pick, director of the Missouri River office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and William Glenn Sloan, director of the Billings, Montana office of the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

Interventions

Several water-control measures were introduced through this legislation that variously affected the Missouri River Valley and its environs. They include:

• Fort Peck Dam
• Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea
• Oahe Dam
• Big Bend Dam
• Fort Randall Dam
• Gavins Point Dam and Lewis and Clark Lake
• Pick-Sloan Legislation
• Davis Creek Dam
• Virginia Smith Dam

Native American relocation

Over 200,000 acres on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota were flooded by the Oahe Dam, forcing Native Americans to relocate from flooded areas. As of 2015, poverty remains a problem for the displaced populatons in the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of the towns submerged under Lake Oahe, and the loss of their traditional ways of life.