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 for bankline stabilization along the Minnesota River was initiated in 2024, and the Robinson Lake HREP feasibility report is undergoing public review. Design continues for the Big Lake and Reno Bottoms HREPs. HREP construction is nearing completion at McGregor Lake: Stage 1 is complete, and Stage 2 will be completed in 2025. Lower Pool 10 Stage 1 construction begins this summer, and a contract award is anticipated for the Reno Bottoms Stage 2 in 2025.

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 (WRDA) of 1986, Public Law 99-662 (codified as amended in 33 U.S. Code 652). Section 8345 of WRDA 2022, Public Law 117-263, increased the authorized program funding to a combined $90 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 $55 million annually to include the three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts along the Upper Mississippi River. The fiscal year 2024 appropriation is $55 million. The fiscal year 2025 President’s Budget is $55 million.

The fiscal year 2025 allocation for the St. Paul District is $10.3 million.