You may have seen the sand and gravel mining operations in the Kansas River. For the cost of a $100 permit, and a fee of 15 cents a ton, these firms set up huge machines in the middle of the riverbed. These gigantic dredge operations block river access for paddlers and anglers and frighten off wildlife with their noise.
If those were the only ill effects, it would be bad enough. But as the machinery grinds and pumps away at the sand and gravel they’re also digging up trouble – chlordane-contaminated sediment lies at the bottom of the Kaw. When the dredgers discharge the leftover mud back into the water, the polluted silt suffocates and contaminates the spawning beds of Kansas fish.
But it’s not just fish that are feeling the effects of the dredging of the Kaw – local utilities, governments and all of us taxpayers and utility ratepayers are footing the bill as well. Dredging destabilizes riverbanks and removes the sand and gravel that supports the foundations of manmade structures in the river. Bridges, dams, weirs and utilities are literally crumbling away. In the past ten years alone Kansans have had to replace the Turner Bridge, to repair one water intake and completely lose another, and to repair Bowersock Dam in Lawrence.
The alternative to dredging is simple – take sand from the flood plain NEXT to the river. This simple transition adds less than 7% to the delivered cost of sand – and it also saves the river.
The Corps of Engineers knows there are big problems with dredging – they’ve declared a fifteen-mile section of the river off-limits to new permits due to the damage dredging has caused. But the Corps doesn’t have the political will it needs to do the right thing. In fact, what they’d like most is to rubberstamp another twelve permits, each one of which will last ten years.
What you can do to help is amazingly simple, and it will go a long way towards saving the Kansas River: Simply write, FAX or email the Corps' hearing officer. Let him know that you want dredging stopped in the river, and that it’s time for the Corps to face up to the damage these operations have caused.
NOTE: Please ask for a public hearing on the 12
dredging permits pending for the Kansas River. We want our voices heard
this time. Put "Kansas River Dredging" at the top of
your letter and address it to:
Audubon of Kansas
revised: 09/02/2003 07:21:17 AM
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