Dean Rebuffoni
Let the River Run
by Dean Rebuffoni"For decades the Corps of Engineers has managed the Mississippi as a barge canal for a very small number of commercial interests. It's time to restore two of the river's most magnificent natural features for the use and enjoyment of all of our people."
— Clyde Hanson, Conservation Chair, North Star Chapter
Those magnificent natural features, the Falls of St. Anthony and the whitewater rapids of the Mississippi River Gorge, are in the heart of Minneapolis. But neither can be seen by Minneapolitans — or anyone else.
The falls and the rapids have been buried — the former under concrete, the latter under water — for decades. That resulted from government and corporate programs that long ago converted the free-flowing Mississippi in Minneapolis into a dammed and dredged industrial stream, and which still shackle it.
The North Star Chapter wants to change that. Its "Let the River Run" campaign, launched in June 2003, calls for restoring the falls and the rapids. It also calls for ending barge traffic on the Mississippi within Minneapolis, where the rivers flow is restricted by three sets of locks and dams built by the Army Corps of Engineers to facilitate commercial navigation.
St. Anthony Falls, as it is commonly known, is the only major natural waterfall on the 2,350-mile-long Mississippi. Once, the river cascaded more than 20 feet over a wide expanse of limestone ledges, creating a loud, continuous roar and emitting clouds of mist and spray.
However, for more than 120 years the ledges have been covered by a huge concrete slab, or apron, built by the Corps of Engineers. The apron protects the ledges, which are underlaid by softer sandstone, from deteriorating under the ceaseless flow of water.
Not coincidentally, the apron and other structures were built at the site to ensure that the river would continue to generate power for industries along the Minneapolis riverfront. As a Corps historian has written, "the ancient cataract had been changed into a public work used largely for private profit."
The rapids stretched for more than eight miles downstream, from the foot of St. Anthony Falls and through the scenic Gorge. It was the longest and steepest stretch of continuous whitewater anywhere on the Mississippi.
Today, that stretch of river is at the bottom of navigation pools created by the Corps. The pools were created by damming the river to raise its water level to provide at least nine feet of depth, or enough to float large barges. From the top of the falls to the foot of the rapids the Mississippi drops about 90 feet, the steepest stretch in its journey from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The Corps' dams and locks allow barges to be lifted and lowered through that stretch of riverway.
Advocates of the "Let the River Run" campaign stress that restoration of the falls and the rapids would greatly boost tourism and recreational opportunities on the river and along its shoreline in the Twin Cities. Kayakers, canoeists, anglers, picnickers, and bird watchers would be drawn to the restored riverway, where public access has long been greatly restricted.
Restoration also would attract public and private promoters of riverfront walkways, hiking paths, restaurants, and other amenities. Restoration would lower the water level in the affected riverway, reestablishing 200 to 300 acres of floodplain for public use, and also would reopen 14 to 15 miles of now-inundated shoreline for Twin Citians and tourists.
There's more:
Restoration would enhance a component of the Mississippi River Flyway, the nation's premier corridor for waterfowl and other migratory birds. Restoration would rejuvenate a spawning area for species of fish that once swarmed in the rapids and below the Falls of St. Anthony, including popular gamefish such as smallmouth bass. Other fish that might be attracted to the restored waterway would be such scarce, large species as sturgeon and paddlefish, both of which once flourished there.
The North Star Chapter doesn't claim to have all the answers to the potential effects of its restoration proposal. Rather, it is calling for independent studies to determine the financial cost and potential economic and environmental effects of restoration. That would include a comprehensive review of the potential effects on industries along the riverway to ensure protection of the jobs and other economic benefits they provide.
"We need an independent study to reveal to the public the true economic costs and benefits of these three sets of locks and dams," said Tom Clarke, a veteran North Star volunteer. "Federal taxpayers provide roughly $3 million in subsidies each year to operate and maintain them for the barge industry."
"But scant economic benefits are produced by barge traffic on the river in Minneapolis," he said. "And the cost to the public is even greater when one measures those scant benefits against the ecological and aesthetic impacts caused by the locks and dams and barge traffic."
Restoring St. Anthony Falls and the rapids is not a new idea: Environmentalists have long questioned the wisdom of allowing such priceless, publicly-owned natural resources to be managed and altered largely for a handful of industries.
Until rather recently, removing or breaching dams was widely considered to be politically impossible, and some skeptics maintain that a major restoration program on the Mississippi in Minneapolis is a task for the next generation of environmentalists.
Restoration advocates are encouraged by the fact that society now has a much greater appreciation of not only the functioning of the river, but the economic value of the river as a natural resource. The restoration would occur within the boundaries of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, which stretches 72 miles through the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Also encouraging is the fact that, after decades of dam building, ecologically harmful dams are increasingly being removed throughout America. Although industry has long dominated the Mississippi and its shoreline in Minneapolis, the city is redeveloping its waterfront and there are proposals to close the commercial harbor above St. Anthony Falls to barges.
Of the three sets of locks and dams, two are within Minneapolis at the upper and lower portions of St. Anthony Falls. They were built to extend the Mississippi's barge channel above the falls and into the city's Upper Harbor, which was developed in anticipation of Minneapolis becoming a major river port. That hasn't happened.
The third structure, six miles below the falls, is Lock and Dam No. 1, which spans the river between south Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is commonly known as the "Ford Dam" because Ford Motor Co. has a hydroelectric plant at the dam that provides power for its nearby truck-manufacturing plant in St. Paul.
Commercial barge traffic through the three locks has never come close to meeting the Corps' original projections, which were used to justify the huge cost of building the structures.
The relatively small amount of barge traffic that moves through the three locks and dams consists largely of sand and gravel. Restoration advocates say theres an abundant supply of those commodities north of Minneapolis, and could be transported by truck to the businesses that use them, while eliminating the public subsidy now provided to the barge industry.
Also, advocates contend that the relatively small amount of hydroelectric power generated by Ford could be replaced by wind energy. Minnesota already is a major producer of wind energy, and more wind generators are scheduled to begin operating in the near future.
Some critics of the restoration proposal stress that the locks and dams maintain the steady water levels needed for barge traffic, and that a restored falls and rapids would result in fluctuating water levels.
But that's what floodplain rivers such as the Mississippi did naturally before they were dammed, diked and dredged: Their waters rose in the spring and ebbed in late summer, sustaining and rejuvenating their native aquatic life. By constantly maintaining an unnaturally high water level, the Corps of Engineers' dams have heavily damaged the natural regime.
Critics also charge that a restored rapids in Minneapolis would, at times, have water low enough to wade across. However, before the locks and dams were built, the rapids had an average depth of about eight feet, and were regularly navigated by small steamboats.
Certainly, the restoration proposal would result in a lower water level in the rapids below St. Anthony Falls. But that wouldn't preclude certain recreational watercraft.
Also, it is conservatively estimated that 200 to 300 acres of publicly-owned, terrestrial habitat would be restored in the gorge area by lowering the water to its pre-impoundment level. That would provide Minneapolis -- and, to a lesser extent, St. Paul -- with a long, wide stretch of waterfront park fronting the finest stretch of whitewater rapids in any urban area in the nation.
Pending further study, environmentalists say that it appears possible to retain the dam at Upper St. Anthony Falls. That would allow restoration of the falls, which is below the dam, while maintaining a sufficiently high water level in the pool above the dam for motorboats.
That presumably also would allow continued operation of the hydroelectric plant at Upper St. Anthony. The limestone ledges now covered by the concrete apron would have to be reinforced to prevent them from being eroded by the unceasing flow of the Mississippi.
For more information on the "Let the River Run" campaign, contact the North Star Chapter at (612)-659-9124.