Corps of Engineers rescheduling Harpers Slough public meeting

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, has rescheduled the Harpers Slough Habitat and Rehabilitation public meeting to June 19.

The meeting was postponed to accommodate schedule conflicts with our partner agencies. The meeting will now be held:

Date:               Thursday, June 19, 2014
Location:         Kerndt Brothers Savings Bank Community Center,  370 Main Street, Lansing, Iowa
Time:               6-8 p.m. 

The meeting will be informal to allow for an open exchange of information. A short slide show will be presented at 6:30 p.m., to explain the project and describe the construction work in more detail.  Representatives from partner agencies involved in the project will also be available.

The project, which is part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program, is located in Pool 9 near Lansing, Iowa. It includes protecting or restoring 98 acres of island habitat and creating more than 20 acres of overwintering habitat for bluegills and other fish species, which would contribute to enhancing the aquatic diversity in this 3,500-acre study area. The Harpers Slough complex has declined in size since the creation of the lock and dam system on the Upper Mississippi River in the 1930s.

The draft project report and integrated environmental assessment is available for public review at http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/PublicNotices.aspx. Comments will be accepted until June 24. Comments on the report can be submitted to the District Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, 180 E. Fifth St., Ste. 700, St. Paul, MN 55101-1678. Commenters are requested not to include personal privacy information, such as home addresses or home phone numbers, in their comments unless they do not object to such information being made available to the public.

The nearly 650 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2011 $175 million budget, nearly 2,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $271 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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