CORPS PROJECTS HAVE SUCCESSFULLY RESTORED MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI

The Middle Mississippi River is best described as the open, free-flowing river made mighty by the combined water of the Missouri and Illinois rivers just north of St. Louis to the river's confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill.

All of this week the Mississippi River on the St. Louis gauge was at a 139-year record low for this time of year. My river engineers have informed me that without augmented flows of water released from the Corps of Engineers' reservoir system on the Missouri River, the Mississippi River at St. Louis would be nearly 2.5 feet lower than it is now. As a result, commercial navigation on the Middle Mississippi River would be severely hampered.

Without the increased flows, many fish populations would be in extreme distress, trapped in rapidly diminishing side channels separated from the main river channel.

Due to the successful augmentation of the river, navigation is moving freely, and not environmental or ecological damage is being experienced as a result of low water conditions.

The Mississippi River is the only river in the United States formally recognized by Congress as both a nationally significant ecosystem and commercial navigation system. The river is a multi-use resource that supports a tremendous range of uses. No single entity controls the Mississippi River, just as no single use of the river precludes all others.

With this in mind, perhaps one of the most compelling issues confronting the corps in regard to the Mississippi River is the attempt to balance the multi-use resources of the river. Balancing the needs of navigation with those of the environment is an awesome task, but is a task the corps has undertaken with respect and determination.

The natural state of the Middle Mississippi River was narrow and deep. Forests spread out across the rich alluvial bottomlands and lined the river's banks. This state was altered after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 marked the opening of the West and encouraged settlement along the river.

The rich timber resources lining the river's banks were cleared to build rapidly expanding settlements, removed for agricultural purposes and used to fuel steamboat engines. As the timber vanished, the river's banks became less stable and rapidly deteriorated because of erosion. As a result, the river widened, and the less stable banks crumbled and fell. Trees were thrust into the river, impeding navigation. The resultant tree snags and shallowness of the channel created sandbars and shoals and combined to make river navigation extremely dangerous. Many lives and river-borne vessels were lost.

By the 1880s, the time many refer to as the Mark Twain era, the condition of the Middle Mississippi River had reached disastrous proportions. To correct the situation, Congress asked the corps to establish and maintain a safe and dependable navigation channel and return the river to its once majestic condition. As a result, the corps began a bold plan to reverse man's destruction of the river.

A variety of methods and navigation structures were employed that worked in harmony with the natural laws of the river. River banks were stabilized. Dredges removed sediment from the channel. And snag boats were used to clear downed trees, wrecked steamboats and other debris.

Today, the Middle Mississippi River has been restored to its once majestic size, and its navigational systems have been strengthened. Once this objective was achieved, the corps, prompted by the concern over a lack of species diversity in the Mississippi River, began taking a closer look at the biological impact of navigational structures on the river's ecosystem.

Working with its partners, the corps developed a plan to solve the problem of species diversity. While there are many factors that contribute to a river's navigability as well as habitat diversity, the one factor that the corps could impact was habitat. The corps began focusing on introducing the primary habitats of a river ecosystem through design modifications of navigation structures. Through the various innovative river-engineering designs the corps developed as a result of the project, significant environmental habitats have been created which have increased the diversity of the riverine environment at no additional cost to the channel-improvement program or the American taxpayer.

The story of the Middle Mississippi River tells how the corps reversed man's destruction of a river and returned it to the way we found it, all while providing a safe and dependable navigation in an environmentally sensitive manner. In the past, it was assumed that progress and environmental stewardship were incompatible -- one had to be favored at the expense of the other. Through years of study, environmental river-engineering methods and working in harmony with the natural laws of the river, the Corps of Engineers has proven this assumption false.

Col. Michael R. Morrow is commander of the St. Louis district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.