Lower Pool 10 habitat rehabilitation and enhancement project, Guttenberg, Iowa: Stage 1 work on recently built island is nearly complete.
Purpose
This program, authorized by Congress in 1986, emphasizes habitat rehabilitation and enhancement projects (HREPs) and long-term resource monitoring. The HREP component includes dredging backwater areas and channels, constructing dikes, creating and stabilizing islands, controlling side channel flows and water levels, and creating floodplain forest habitat.
Location
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program includes studies and projects located in the Upper Mississippi River system north of Cairo, Illinois. The Upper Mississippi River system includes the Illinois River.
Description
In the St. Paul District, the UMRR projects are located along the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers from Guttenberg, Iowa (Lock and Dam 10), to Minneapolis, Minnesota, a distance of approximately 250 river miles.
The long-term resource monitoring component of this work includes monitoring trends and impacts with respect to selected resources, developing products for resource management decisions, and maintaining river information databases.
Status
Planning has begun on a new bankline stabilization project for Mississippi River Pools 4-11. The Minnesota River bankline stabilization HREP reached an approved tentatively selected plan in February 2026. The Robinson Lake HREP feasibility report was approved in November 2025. Design continues on the Big Lake and Reno Bottoms HREPs. Construction has been completed for both stages of the McGregor Lake HREP. Lower Pool 10 Stage 1 HREP construction began in 2025. Contract awards are anticipated for Lower Pool 10 Stage 3 and Reno Bottoms Stage 2 in 2026.
Thirty projects have been completed throughout the Mississippi River within the St. Paul District area of operations.
Authority
Congress originally authorized the UMRR program in Section 1103 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, Public Law 99-662 (codified as amended in 33 U.S. Code 652). Section 1354 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, Public Law 118-272, increased the authorized program funding to a combined $100 million annually.
To implement the UMRR program, partnerships have been formed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey and the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois.
Funding
The authorized program funding is $100 million annually for the three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts along the Upper Mississippi River.
Fiscal year 2025
- The full program appropriation was $13.5 million.
- The allocation for the St. Paul District was $3.4 million.
Fiscal year 2026
- The full program appropriation is $52 million.
- The allocation for the St. Paul District is $11.5 million.