Nov. 2002: Sediment: Why Worry?
By Howard Paul, executive director of MSAC

Our Missouri River reservoirs are in trouble.  Sediment deposits are taking place in every one of them.   Sadly, many people seem to take this problem as something which is going to happen, and nothing can be done about it. 

How serious is it?  In January 2000, at a public meeting in Springfield, South Dakota, attended by about 300 people, a representative of the Corps of Engineers stated that in 25 years, Lewis and Clark Lake, the impoundment of Gavins Point Dam, would lose most of its capability as a recreation resource, and in 75 years, it would be filled with sediment.  (Later estimates may modify these figures, but not by much.) 

If you find this hard to believe, look out over the river at Springfield, at what used to be a broad lake.  It is now a marsh, with braided channels and large mud flats covered with aquatic vegetation.  The federal government is spending $35 million to buy out 180 homes in the Pierre-Fort Pierre area because of flooded basements and other problems caused by high ground water, the result of sediment deposits in Lake Sharpe (Big Bend Dam), below the mouth of the Bad River at Fort Pierre. 

The Buford-Trenton irrigation project near Williston, North Dakota, is being bought out by the federal government because of high ground water, a result of sediment from the Yellowstone River.  Bismarck is beginning to experience the same problems in a residential area.  These buy-outs do nothing to resolve the problem.  They simply address only the effects of the problem – about like taking an aspirin tablet to cure a brain tumor.  It may help the headache, but it will not cure the problem.

On October 3^rd of this year, Colonel Kurt Ubbelhode, Commander and District Engineer of the Corps of Engineers in Omaha, stated at a meeting Springfield:  “Right now, we have determined that there is no cost-effective method available to pursue.  There just doesn’t seem to be a solution that I can present to you today and say we can solve the problem.”

The Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition (MSAC) finds that this position is totally unacceptable.

MSAC is dedicated to getting the federal government to address the sedimentation problem by finding and funding solutions to the problem.  In upcoming issues we will discuss the benefits we enjoy that these dams and reservoirs create, what we will lose if we lose the reservoirs by doing nothing, and some of the economic benefits generated by these dams and reservoirs, benefits that will be seriously reduced if we do nothing.

Stay tuned.  More is coming.

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