The Channel Maintenance Management Plan is a comprehensive, long-term plan for guiding channel maintenance activities in the St. Paul District. The plan evolved from the GREAT study (1974-1980) and subsequent planning efforts to implement GREAT study recommendations. It provides long-term planning, establishes coordination procedures and an evaluation process for dredged material placement site alternatives and provides historic data related to the channel maintenance program. While long-term in nature, the plan is designed to accommodate new information and changes.

Please visit the CMMP webpage here for more information.

The Great River Environmental Action Team I, or GREAT I, study took place from 1975-1980. The study was an interagency effort involving the Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Soil Conservation Service; U.S. Coast Guard; and the states of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The primary objectives of the study were the development of a detailed site-specific channel maintenance plan and recommendations for the management of the river system and its interrelated components within the river corridor. One of the main products of the study was a channel maintenance plan which recommended dredged material placement sites for all historic dredge cuts within the St. Paul District. An Environmental Impact Statement was completed as a part of the study.

Please visit the CMMP webpage here for more information.

The St. Paul District dredges around 1 million cubic yards of dredged material every year from Minneapolis to Lock and Dam 10, in Guttenberg, Iowa. This is approximately enough material to fill U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis or Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Nearly a third of this material comes directly from Pools 4 – 6.

Section 217 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 authorized the Corps of Engineers to work with non-federal sponsors to establish agreements to manage dredged material at a dredged material placement facility. The St. Paul District and the city of Wabasha, Minnesota, signed the Section 217 agreement July 24, 2023. This is the first of its kind agreement for inland waters within the United States. The agreement has typically been utilized for harbor dredging.

Click here to learn more about this agreement.

The Federal Standard is the least costly alternatives consistent with sound engineering practices and meeting the environmental standards established by the Clean Water Act’s Section 404(b)(1) evaluation process.

Please visit 33 CFR Part 335.7 or 33 CFR § 335.4 for more information.

The Tentatively Selected Plan, or TSP, is the plan that a Corps of Engineers team determines to be the best option for placing dredged material within an area. The TSP generally adheres to the Federal Standard.

The Corps of Engineers tries to avoid placing material in a wetland due to the need to comply with the Federal Standard and the desire to be a good steward of the environment. While we make every effort to avoid filling wetlands, sometimes the need arises to do so. In these rare circumstances, we work with our partners to adequately mitigate the need to fill a wetland with dredged material.

The Corps is mandated by Congress to maintain the navigation channel which is critical to the local and national economy. The Corps of Engineers has several tools to maintain the 9-foot navigation channel. These tools include the locks and dams system, surveying and dredging. Dredging is required, in addition to the locks and dams, due to an ever changing river bed and the movement of sediment. Dredging allows Corps officials the ability to remove deposited sediments from the riverbed, which helps navigation vessels safely move commodities.

Placing dredged material on land owned by other government agencies (federal, state and local) can be challenging due to the need to ensure the material placement conforms to the needs and mission of the agency that owns the land. Corps officials are in constant communication with our partners to seek beneficial opportunities when and where feasible.

Filling abandoned mining pits, ravines and low-lying areas are often considered in the Corps’ planning process. These are often great opportunities to reclaim mined land. However, a number of site-specific conditions may prevent these sites from being selected as part of the Tentatively Selected Plan, or TSP, all of which are equally applicable and are also considered at any other sites evaluated. For instance:

-The location is too far from the river which significantly increases the cost associated with placing material there;

-The location(s) are generally smaller in size and lack the necessary capacity to store a minimum of 20 years of dredged material;

- The locations are generally smaller in size and often reduce and/or eliminate efficiencies in managing the material, which ultimately drives up costs; and

-A location may have environmental concerns such as wetlands; or hazardous, toxic, radioactive or waste materials that would prohibit the Corps from using the site.

As a general rule, Corps officials try to avoid wetlands but they can be filled if it is deemed to be the most environmentally acceptable solution for a given area. Corps officials would mitigate any damage and/or destruction of wetlands if they were chosen as the TSP.