President picks resident to serve fourth term on Mississippi River Commission

VICKSBURG, Miss. -- In 2018, the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project will mark its 90th year of working to reduce the impact of flooding and to improve navigation on the Mississippi River. For over a third of that time, R.D. James of New Madrid, Mo., has served as a civilian member of the commission that oversees the MR&T and other construction projects up and down the Mississippi River.

Following his reappointment Thursday by President Barack Obama, James will continue that effort. And, he said, there is still much work to be done.

"The MR&T project is not complete. With my experience I think I can help the Corps get that project completed while funding is available," James said.

With 36 years of MRC experience, James is now the second-longest serving member in the history of the Commission, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. President Ronald Reagan appointed James as a civil engineer civilian member to the Mississippi River Commission in 1981. He was reappointed in 1991 by President H.W. Bush and in 2003 by President George W. Bush.

Established in 1879, the Commission includes three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers generals, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration admiral and three senior civilians. As a civilian commissioner, James helps the presidentially-appointed river engineering experts oversee the river's levees, floodwalls, reservoirs and floodways along with the channel improvement operations and maintenance which are part of the MR&T.

James said that he has enjoyed his work with the commission.

"By education, I am a civil engineer. This allows me the opportunity to interact with the Corps of Engineers trying to find the best way forward in maintaining and finishing that project," James said. He added he has become very familiar with the areas yet to be completed.

While serving as a member of the Mississippi River Commission, he has toured and inspected civil works engineering features and engaged water resources stakeholders across the greater Mississippi drainage basin, which encompasses 31 states and more than 250 major rivers and tributaries, draining 41 percent of the United States. 

According to a news release from Corps of Engineers, James has "developed superior expertise in inland navigation and flood-control development by fostering strong ties and in-depth understanding of conditions along every major tributary of the Mississippi River: the upper Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Missouri River, the Arkansas River, the Illinois River, the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River." 

In 2009, James received the Bronze de Fleury medal for his significant contributions to Army engineering from the Corps.

Maintaining navigation of the Mississippi River, especially the lower portion of the river to the Gulf of Mexico, is essential to the economy of the United States, James emphasized adding the river is one of the nation's busiest routes benefitting a variety of industries.

"Sixty percent of the grain exported in the U.S. goes down the Mississippi River along with fertilizer, fuel, oil, etc. It provides the United States with the cheapest mode of transportation for bulk products that is available," James said.

His duties with the Mississippi River Commission have not only enabled him to travel the Mississippi River extensively, it also resulted in overseas missions to represent the United States in fact finding and engineering solutions. With the Mekong River Commission, he travelled to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

But it is the commission's work on the Mississippi River that he said he enjoys the most. 

Particularly the public hearings conducted twice a year as the Commission travels the river. 

According to James, the Mississippi River Commission is the only commission in the United States that has scheduled meetings with the public twice a year. Each spring and fall, the MRC hosts from eight to 10 public meetings to hear from landowners, community officials and others.

"I have enjoyed and will continue to (enjoy) the meeting and the interaction with the public that we get. The Commission has a lot of input on how a project is maintained and completed. ... It is a collaborative effort," he said. 

Based on feedback from the public and advances in engineering, the MRC has made hundreds of improvements to the MR&T system over the last 80 plus years and those improvements helped prevent $234 billion in damages during the 2011 flood alone, according to the Corps of Engineers. 

While employed with the Kentucky Department of Water Resources engineering office, James attended the University of Kentucky and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1971. Now he is a self-employed farmer and manager of cotton gins and grain elevators for the A.C. Riley Company in New Madrid.

James received the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce 2007 Agri Business Award and was the New Madrid County Outstanding Conservation Farmer of 1987. He presently serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association and is a board member of the Cotton Producers of Missouri. 

He is a past member of both the Board of Directors of the U.S. Bank of Sikeston and the New Madrid County Board of Education, where he served as the president from 1980-1998.

A native of Fulton County, Kentucky, James is married to the former Virginia "Jennye" Riley of New Madrid. Their son, Albert Riley James, is a self-employed farmer and operations manager for the A.C. Riley Cotton Company. They also had one daughter, the late Virginia Elizabeth James.