USACE Seeks Comments on Lake Pepin Plan

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is proposing to construct a habitat rehabilitation project at the head of Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River, located in Pierce County, Wisconsin, using material dredged from the Mississippi River.

The Corps released its draft Environmental Assessment for the project recently and will accept comments on the document until by May 11.

The proposed project was planned in collaboration with the Wisconsin and Minnesota departments of natural resources and other partners and would enhance and restore backwater habitat in Lake Pepin. A complex of four peninsulas, overwintering dredged areas, water level management features and shoreline protection would be constructed to improve habitat for fish and wildlife.

Features were designed to reduce the negative impacts of sediment on aquatic plants and fish, as well as to create and protect floodplain forest and wetlands for migratory birds and other wildlife.

The Corps will beneficially use dredged material removed from Reads Landing Dredged Material Placement Site in Lower Pool 4, located just north of Wabasha, Minnesota, to construct the peninsulas. The project could use up to 400,000 cubic yards of dredged material.

This project was selected last year as one of 10 projects Corps-wide to participate in a national Corps of Engineers pilot program to use dredged material to improve habitat.