Wabasha Begins Removing Stored River Sand

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Wabasha, Minn., have reached a milestone in a partnership designed to improve management of dredged sand along the Mississippi River.

The city and Wabasha Port Authority have begun removing the first loads of sand from temporary placement islands along the river, putting into operation an agreement nearly a decade in the making.

The partnership stems from the Corps’ Lower Pool 4 Dredged Material Management Plan, initially released in 2017. Following community concerns about safety and the preservation of area farmland, the Corps and city worked together to develop an alternative approach to managing material removed during channel maintenance.

The effort included completion of the Lower Pool 4 Environmental Assessment in November 2022 and the signing of a Section 217(d) agreement in July 2023. According to the Corps, it was the first agreement of its kind for inland waterways in the nation.

“Moving this material represents the culmination of nearly a decade of collaborative problem-solving — transforming what began in 2017 as a contentious planning challenge into a historic ‘win-win-win’ partnership for the city of Wabasha, the St. Paul District and the American taxpayer,” said Patrick Moes, deputy public affairs chief for the St. Paul Engineer District.

Under the agreement, Wabasha and the Wabasha Port Authority manage the dredged sand and determine how it can be put to beneficial use. Much of the material is being transported by truck along U.S. Highway 61 to former gravel pits, where it will be used for reclamation and to prepare the land for future development.

The city also can distribute smaller quantities of sand to raise properties out of the floodplain, support municipal and commercial development and provide material for construction fill, road maintenance and aggregate blending.

The agreement changes the Corps’ traditional approach to dredged material management by shifting responsibility for upland placement and beneficial reuse to the city. Previously, the Corps typically acquired large upland disposal sites and contracted for the transportation and stockpiling of dredged material.

Under the new arrangement, the Corps pays the city a nominal tipping fee to manage the sand. This gives Wabasha greater control over truck routes and placement locations while allowing the city to direct material toward local projects.

The arrangement also addresses a significant dredging challenge in Lower Pool 4. The Wabasha area accounts for approximately 250,000 cubic yards of the roughly 1 million cubic yards of sand the St. Paul District dredges annually throughout its area of responsibility, which extends from Minneapolis to Lock and Dam 10 near Guttenberg, Iowa.

The Corps uses four temporary in-river placement sites in the Lower Pool 4 study area, including Reads Landing, Crats Island, Teepeeota Point and Grand Encampment. These sites provide temporary storage for material removed from the navigation channel but have limited capacity.

Regularly removing sand from the temporary sites and transporting it to upland locations is necessary to maintain room for future dredging operations.

“If we cannot regularly remove sand from the sites to permanent upland locations, they will eventually lose capacity, leaving our dredge crews nowhere to place material,” Moes said.

The partnership is intended to provide the placement capacity needed to manage an estimated 10.7 million cubic yards of sand over the 40-year life of the Lower Pool 4 Dredged Material Management Plan.

The Wabasha reach is particularly challenging because of recurring shoaling associated with the Chippewa Delta and Lower Pool 4. Moes said the agreement provides a continuous municipal offloading process while reducing the need for the Corps to acquire additional farmland for disposal sites.

The next phase will involve continued sand removal and seasonal trucking operations to reduce stockpiles at the temporary placement islands and transfer sites ahead of future navigation seasons.

Looking ahead, the Corps hopes the partnership will expand beneficial reuse markets for river sand, support regional infrastructure and development and provide a model for similar arrangements elsewhere.

Moes said the agreement could serve as a national example of how federal agencies and local communities can work together to address recurring dredged material management challenges while maintaining reliable navigation.

The Upper Mississippi River’s 9-foot navigation channel supports the movement of agricultural products, fertilizer, salt and other bulk commodities.