Flowing for over 500 miles from its west-central Ohio headwaters to its confluence with the Ohio River in southern Illinois, the Wabash River is the largest un-dammed river east of the Rocky Mountains. For those living along the Wabash, planning to protect and enhance the river’s future has become a necessary priority. 

Earlier this summer, the Office of Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon conducted a survey of residents in the Wabash River watershed as an initial step in gathering public input that will help direct future watershed planning efforts. Almost 250 people responded from all 18 counties that lie within the watershed’s boundaries. {Continue Reading »}

Prairie Rivers Network and Partners Press Obama Administration for Better Water Resource Planning

U.S. Army Engineers open the Morganza Spillway , Morganza, MS, to relieve pressure on the flood waters of the Mississippi River, on Saturday, May 15, 2011. Source: flickr/US Army Corp of Engineers Photo.

The 2011 floods and their aftermath will be a fact of life for many in the months and years to come. At this time, residents along the Missouri River are building additional levees or adding height to current levees in the hopes of avoiding floods from record high river levels. Floodgates of the Morganza and Bonne Carre spillways on the Mississippi River remain open almost a month after they were raised to lessen downstream flooding. In the last week, the Corps’ estimates of the cost to rebuild levees damaged by the Mississippi floods has increased from $1 to $2 billion dollars, and will certainly increase as more damage information becomes available. Clearly, it is past time for rethinking how we manage and live with the Big River.

Rethinking needs to begin with the White House and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In a letter to President Obama, sent June 21, 2011, Prairie Rivers Network and 44 other organizations are urging the Administration to revise the current federal water resources planning principles and guidelines (P & G) to ensure federal funds used for water resource management and project planning “protect and restore the natural flood fighting defenses of the nation’s river and wetlands.” {Continue Reading »}

Photo credit: NASA

American Rivers, a national river conservation organization, named both the Chicago and Mississippi Rivers in its 2011 “America’s Most Endangered Rivers” report issued earlier this week. The list “…is a call to action for rivers at a crossroads, whose fates will be determined in the coming year.”

For the Chicago River, the report highlights the 1.2 billion gallons of sewage effluent released daily into the Chicago River that has not been disinfected. This polluted water creates threats to public health that could be alleviated if Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District fully treated its sewage. In positive news, federal officials have stated that the current situation will not be allowed to continue.

The Mississippi River’s current record water levels and resulting unprecedented flooding caused American Rivers to give it the unusual designation of a “Special Mention” in its report. The economic damage from the flooding, the displacement of people and wildlife, and the impacts on water quality from sewage, excess nutrients and other pollution in the  flood waters underscore the need to rethink, recreate and adapt our flood prevention strategies and restoration efforts to work with, not against, the river. Read more about this issue.

Here is a guest commentary by Dr. Stacy James, Water Resources Scientist with Prairie Rivers Network. The article was originally published on May 1, 2011, and is reproduced here by permission of The News-Gazette, Inc.

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Tales of eroding streambanks and increased flooding have become all too familiar across Illinois.  People are literally losing their land and livelihoods to water.  As the spring rains fall and streams surge, we should turn our attention to solutions that work with nature instead of fighting the same old losing battle.   

Flooding and property damage are both an urban and a rural problem.  Finger pointing does little good and indeed we are all to blame.  But we can help each other by implementing affordable solutions on our own properties and supporting community initiatives.

In urban areas, impermeable surfaces such as roads and rooftops shed most of the snow and rain that falls.  Because of this impaired ability to soak water into the ground, almost half of urban stormwater drains into storm drains which then discharge into local streams.  As urban areas develop, streams become less able to handle all the water and widen with the increased flow.   

Fortunately, it is possible to design urban areas so that more water soaks into the ground where it falls.  Instead of traditional pavement, porous pavement can be used in many instances.  And instead of directing gutter downspouts onto driveways or drains, roof water can be diverted into rain gardens and rain barrels.  Just planting more trees can reduce flooding by intercepting rain before it hits the ground.  Examples of these types of green infrastructure can be found dotted across the landscape and are becoming more and more popular.

In rural areas, there is far more exposed soil to absorb snow and rain.  However, most agricultural fields contain a network of underground pipes that drain the land so that crops can grow.  Like urban storm sewers, these pipes or tiles discharge into nearby ditches and streams, and the flow out of the pipes can be substantial after storms.  Despite this engineering, some fields rarely produce a good crop because of flooding.  Such fields are therefore better suited to serve as floodwater storage and infiltration areas.

A state program called Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) actually pays farmers to return flooded areas to nature along the Kaskaskia River and its tributaries.  The program targets wetlands and sensitive land that is prone to erosion or located in the 100-year floodplain.  CREP focuses on these areas because getting them out of agricultural production can produce disproportionate benefits for natural resources.  Fields that frequently flood or require significant chemical inputs to be productive are ideal for CREP. 

The Kaskaskia River originates in Champaign County and flows south until it joins the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.  The Kaskaskia is Illinois’ second largest river system and drains approximately 10% of the state.  Many people hope this program will reduce the flooding and streambank erosion problems that plague the river along its over 300-mile course.

Restoring the land to trees and grasses has a number of benefits.  Land located along rivers can store floodwater and infiltrate it into the ground so that downstream flooding is less.  Pesticides, fertilizers, oils, and other pollution that gets washed into rivers during storms can get filtered out by wetlands that receive floodwater.  Wildlife and fish quickly respond to habitat restoration projects. 

CREP is administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, with the help of county Soil & Water Conservation Districts.  CREP Coordinators have been hired to promote the program and work with applicants.  Applications are being accepted now and should be submitted as soon as possible given the popularity of the program and limited budget. 

Instead of prolonging our antiquated ethic that water is a nuisance that must be piped away, we should find innovative ways to use stormwater to our benefit.  Water is a valuable resource that can be harvested for economic gain.  Nature protection in strategic areas represents a smart investment that benefits ourselves and future generations.  Such stewardship will not only reduce flooding but will also recharge drinking water supplies such as the Mahomet Aquifer.  In these difficult times of limited resources and seemingly limitless needs, initiatives like CREP and green infrastructure provide a tremendous opportunity for positive change.

Some thoughts on blasting a levee to restore a floodplain

On May 2, 2011, websites and newspapers across the nation featured the image of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ blasting a levee to activate the Mississippi River’s New Madrid Floodway, located between the borders of southern Illinois and Missouri. Against the night sky, the blast’s leaping flames and billowing smoke were a sobering symbol of a “grave decision” made in response to one of the area’s worst flooding events in history. In the end, the decision to blast the levee prevented the flooding of Cairo, Illinois, a town with 3,000 residents; the diverted waters have flooded approximately 130,000 of acres of agricultural land and 100 residences in Missouri.

There is a fascinating backstory to this event, and George Sorvalis of the Water Protection Network has outlined it beautifully in a commentary called “Grave Decisions.” We are reposting it in its entirety here. Prairie Rivers Network, along with the Water Protection Network and other organizations concerned with protecting our rivers and water, believes that we must work to adopt growth and development policies that work with natural river dynamics. We must “make room” for our rivers, both for their protection and for our own.

Grave Decisions
By George Sorvalis
Water Protection Network, Coordinator
 
The Corps of Engineers last night activated the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway – a roughly 130,000 acre, 3 to 10 mile-wide, floodway inside a 56-mile-long ‘frontline’ levee along the Mississippi River and a 36-mile long setback levee.  There is a 1,500-foot gap where the 2 levees would come together down river, to allow the floodway to drain back into the Mississippi River.  This gap also allows the Mississippi River to back into its floodplain providing exceptional (and now unfortunately rare) wildlife habit. {Continue Reading »}

Rain garden on Hill Street

Prairie Rivers Network completed two more rain gardens in Champaign during September. These rain gardens are part of our Reining in the Rain Campaign, funded by Illinois American Water. Our hope is that these publicly visible rain gardens will inspire neighbors to do more to keep stormwater on their properties and out of streets and streams.  To learn more about rain gardens, see our webpage and brochure.

Washington Street East rain garden

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out, and homeowners Anna Barnes and Ramona Oswald. We also thank the following partners whose work and support made this project possible: University of Illinois (Gale Fulton), City of Champaign, West Washington Street Watershed Steering Committee, Washington Street East Watershed Steering Committee. And finally, hats off to Steve of Royal FX for making our lives easier by excavating and hauling.