Project Status Report Sediment Budgets For Two Navigation Pools Of The Upper Mississippi River System

The source and fate of sediments delivered to the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) have long been issues of concern. Impoundment by a series of locks and dams, and the associated rise in water level, initially created a highly diverse structural environment of secondary and tertiary channels, considerable bathymetric relief, and numerous islands. Eventually, the impoundment resulted in the simplification of that structural diversity. In the 60 years since impoundment, channels have filled in, bathymetric relief has been reduced and islands have been lost to erosion. The Environmental Management Technical Center, in cooperation with the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, Illinois and Iowa Districts) and the states of Illinois and Iowa, selected Pool 13 on the Mississippi River and the La Grange Pool on the Illinois River as the initial sites to develop pool-scale suspended sediment budgets. Developing a sediment budget is a necessary first step in understanding the future geomorphology of a navigation pool.