Corps closes Minneapolis locks and dams to recreational vessels due to high Mississippi River flows

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, announced today that it is closing Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and Lock and Dam 1, in Minneapolis, to all recreational traffic until further notice due to high flows over 30,000 cubic feet per second, or cfs. According to the Corps' Mississippi Valley Division lock and dam regulation manual, the district is required to close the lock and dams to recreational traffic at 30,000 cfs because the high flows are unsafe. Commercial traffic at these locks is shut down at 40,000 cfs.

The St. Paul District navigation program provides a safe, reliable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation system on the Upper Mississippi River for the movement of commercial goods and for national security needs. To do this, the district maintains a 9-foot navigation channel and 13 locks and dams from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa. Keeping this system open is vital to the nation’s economy.

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