More than 1,000 farmland acres in the Chesterfield, MO area shown below was under up to 15 feet of water in 1993 but today (2nd photo below) a $275 million mall, longest outdoor strip mall in America, has been constructed there, protected by a 500-year flood levee. The project was built utilizing government tax increment financing; intended…
Read MoreMaking Room for the River
The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) has been working to preserve the natural value of Missouri’s floodplains for over 40 years. Lawsuits filed by MCE resulted in a consent agreement forcing the Corps of Engineers to regulate navigable waters up primary tributaries to the ordinary high water mark. MCE was critical in the effort…
Read MoreWater Quality
Water quality is directly connected to the composition of the watershed. In the Kiefer Creek Watershed bacteria and chloride are delivered from the watershed area into the stream by storm water runoff. Because of this connection is it very important to study water quality in terms of watershed composition, non-point source loading, and storm water…
Read MoreSt. Louis Sewers – Background
The St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer System transports wastewater and storm water for approximately 1.4 million people in a 535-square-mile service area covering St. Louis city and about 80% of St. Louis County. It includes over 9,600 miles of pipe, making it the fourth largest in the United States, with 7 treatment facilities processing 330 million gallons…
Read MoreLarge Rivers
Large rivers are generally those that flow across or along multiple states and have a large watershed or basin area. In the U.S., as well as in most other countries, large rivers have been developed the most by the construction of large dams and other infrastructure to allow us to use and exploit their resources….
Read MoreRiver Management
The U.S. Corps of Engineers has been responsible for “developing” the Mississippi River Basin’s rivers since the early 1800s when Congress directed them to do surveys and remove snags within the river channel. Navigation Mission To improve navigation safety and efficiency by the 1860s the Corps of Engineers was blasting out river rapids at several locations…
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