Corps of Engineers suspends several river projects in Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- A threatened lawsuit from the state has prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to suspend several Missouri River projects designed to restore fish habitat.

All the suspended projects are in Missouri. Two are under construction and several more were being planned before the state's Clean Water Commission threatened to sue over the corps' plan to dump millions of tons of dirt into the river.

Under a federal environmental opinion from 2003, the corps is required to build 20,000 acres of shallow-water habitat along the river by 2020. The corps had begun building chutes alongside channels in the river to help the endangered pallid sturgeon and other river fish.

Some of the projects require contractors to dump soil excavated from the side channels into the river. Corps officials contend the extra sediment is good for the river, which studies show used to be much muddier.

But the Clean Water Commission and farmers oppose the dirt dumping, saying the bottomland soil is a valuable natural resource and carries nutrients that could pollute the river. They also argue that the corps is not being required to follow regulations farmers have to follow to mitigate erosion on their fields.

"I think there are many better uses of the soil than dumping it into the river," said Kristin Perry, vice chairwoman of the Clean Water Commission. "Soil is a good thing on land, and so are nutrients, but they don't belong in the river."

The two projects that have been stopped are at the Jameson Island chute near Arrow Rock, where the corps intends to put 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt and sand into the Missouri River, and a project called Rush Bottom Bend near Mound City in northwest Missouri.

The corps and the state will conduct tests at the site to make sure the soil is safe before resuming construction. The construction delay and soil tests will cost the corps $220,000, a corps official said.

The tests cost $60,000 each and will take about two weeks. The delay for testing will raise chute construction costs an additional $100,000 at Rush Bottom Bend, said Mike George, the corps' Missouri River Recovery Program manager.

The delay shouldn't increase the $3.7 million cost at Jameson Island, George said, because recent floodwaters have temporarily stopped construction. The chute there is 40 percent completed.

Even if the soil is found to be safe, Perry said, she wants the corps to find some other use for it "that would not require dumping soil and losing it forever."

George said the corps hopes the projects will resume by July 1. But if the delays continue in Missouri, the corps will have to consider relocating its resources to another state, he said.

"We've got a couple of contracts we'd like to get out," George said. "And if we can't move forward, then we'll have to look at whether we need to move the work up north."

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Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com