The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, will hold a meeting at Cottage Grove City Hall training room, 12800 Ravine Parkway, from 6- 8 p.m., Dec. 9 to discuss a recently-released draft Environmental Assessment, or EA, for its proposed dredged material management plan in Pool 2 of the Mississippi River.
The draft of the dredged materials management plan — DMMP — outlines the transportation methods and necessary land requirements to permanently place dredged material removed from the Mississippi River in Pool 2 for the next 40 years. This plan would ensure the 9-foot navigation channel remains open and able to transport the region’s grains and other commodities to global markets. Pool 2 is a 32-mile long stretch of the river from Lock and Dam 1 in St. Paul to Lock and Dam 2 in Hastings.
The meeting will include a formal presentation at 6:30 p.m. highlighting the Corps’ navigation mission and the proposed dredged material management plan. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
The Corps of Engineers is encouraging the public to read the document and respond by Jan. 8, 2020. Questions on the plan or comments on the EA can be directed to Clay Tallman, project manager, at 651-290-5030 or [email protected]. Address all formal written correspondence on this project to the St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ATTN: Regional Planning and Environment Division North, 180 Fifth St. E., Suite 700, St. Paul, MN 55101.
Dredging in the Pool 2 area has become more of a concern for the Corps of Engineers, because the amount of material that needs to be dredged each year is increasing. A sediment assessment completed in Sept. 2016 to predict future dredging requirements showed that the amount of dredged material will increase substantially.
“Between 1981 and 2014, the average amount of material dredged per year in Pool 2 was approximately 107,000 cubic yards,” according to the Environmental Assessment. The amount will increase to “169,000 cubic yards per year. Therefore, the 40-year target capacity for the Pool 2 DMMP is approximately 6.8 million cubic yards.”
A draft EA describing the plan and the environmental impacts is available to the public and can be viewed and downloaded from the St. Paul District website at www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/PublicNotices.aspx. The full DMMP is available at www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Portals/57/docs/Environmental/EA/Draft__PublicReview_MainReport_Pool2_DMMP_Nov_2019.pdf?ver=2019-11-21-111207-080.
