Topeka ? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is defending plans to release water from Kansas reservoirs to support barge traffic on the Missouri River, despite criticism from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Paul Johnston, a corps spokesman in Omaha, Neb., said Tuesday that Milford, Perry and Tuttle reservoirs are sources of water for the Missouri because they recharge relatively quickly. The reservoirs are along the Kansas River, which flows into the Missouri at Kansas City.

He also said federal law requires the corps to support barge traffic and doesn’t allow the agency to ignore that duty.

“I don’t think anybody wants any federal agency picking and choosing which laws it complies with,” Johnston said.

Last week, Sebelius said barge traffic was not as important to the economy as it was decades ago and suggested the corps management policies for the Missouri are out of date.

“There’s been litigation for almost a decade over this issue, and that seems to be a pretty fruitless area to continue to pursue,” she told reporters Tuesday. “We’re no further down the road toward resolution than we were 10 years ago.”

The dispute over the river’s management involves officials in the eight Missouri River basin states — Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa.

This summer, a federal judge in Washington sided with conservationists and ordered the corps to cut the river’s flow. The corps refused, saying its hands were tied by a conflicting court ruling in Nebraska.

Another federal judge in Minnesota, who recently took control of all Missouri River lawsuits, later ruled there was no conflict and said the order to reduce water flows stands.

Meanwhile, the corps began Monday to increase the flow of water from upstream reservoirs to 29,000 cubic feet per second, up 4,000 CFS.

Its plans call for releasing water from Milford and Tuttle later this month and from Perry in October. It will be the ninth time since 1980 that the corps has released water from Kansas reservoirs for the Missouri.