Mississippi River and Its Tributaries

The Mississippi River & Tributaries project (MR&T) was a result of the devastating 1927 flood on the Mississippi River. Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to design this system for the lower portion of the Mississippi River, essentially from Cairo, IL to New Orleans, LA, to pass what was estimated to be the “flood of…

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Missouri River Dams

The six Missouri River dams, started in 1933 and completed in 1964, were built primarily through the Pick-Sloan Program, a Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers compromise for developing the Missouri River. The dams are located in the upper portion of the Missouri River and were built primarily to store water for hydroelectric power generation,…

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Missouri River Recovery Program

Just as on the Mississippi River, ecosystem restoration efforts have been ongoing within the Missouri River as well.  Since 2000, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been working on the Missouri River Recovery Program (MRRP), whose mission is to: “Implement actions to accomplish Missouri River ecosystem recovery goals in coordination and…

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Upper Mississippi River Ecosystem Restoration

In 1986, the Corps of Engineers received a new mission within the Mississippi River basin: ecosystem restoration. The 1986 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) created the Upper Mississippi River Environmental Management Program. Recently, its name has been changed to the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program. The program is dedicated to developing restoration projects within the Upper Mississippi River:…

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Navigation on the Missouri River

Like the Mississippi River, the Missouri River has also been highly altered to float large barges. The structures on the Missouri River, however, are harder to see unless you know what to look for. While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) used both locks, dams, and river training structures to create an artificial barge channel…

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