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1. Greg Genz, Upper Mississippi Waterways
Association member and river construction consultant. |
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2. Dave Edmunds, executive vp of Kraemer and Sons. |
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private
industry perspective:
a shifting history, continuing need
The Upper Mississippi Waterways Association is a group of commercial interests that use the river and its tributaries, including the Minnesota and St. Croix . According to Greg Genz, a longtime member, the association includes “barge line companies, river construction outfits, at times the Chamber of Commerce, and ad hoc members like MnDOT, the Coast Guard, the US Army, the Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service.”
Negotiations through history
Why have negotiations over dredge materials been so protracted?
The answer may lie entangled in historical problems, Genz suggests. He points to the GREAT study that found adverse environmental effects in previous COE dumping methods and that suggested approving only those sites that would minimize such effects. In short, the commercial interests and the Corps were told they “couldn’t do business the way they used to.”
The early adverse effects included the potential filling in of floodplains and their flora. When too much material gets deposited in a floodplain, how will the floodplain function in the event of a flood? Will it still allow water to flow through? Will native flora be buried, floodplain forests disappear?
When
materials could no longer be deposited on the
Genz
also thinks there is just a lot more material coming into the river in the
last 20 years than previously. When he was a young man and lived in the
western suburbs, it took two days for rainfall material to get to
In
1998 Kraemer ran out of room for private dredge materials, and the
District decided to try to find additional spaces. They lost one possible
site at
According to Kraemer’s Dave Edmunds, executive vice president of operations on the Minnesota River, the company has had good relations with the District for about 20 years, ever since Kraemer agreed to become a site for dredge materials deposit.
“Though the District has made efforts from time to time to add capacity we remain an integral part of the process. We operate a site here and receive material when it’s available.
“The pile doesn’t get any bigger here; we’ve basically maintained the site for the Corps of Engineers and made sure there was always capacity when they needed it. We’ve never had a problem relating to operations or availability.”
Kraemer's use of the materials
Kraemer uses some of the dredge material on site and sells some of it to private contractors, who use it in various applications. “These customers include construction contractors, people who blend topsoil with sand, and our sand seems to work for them,” adds Edmunds. “A majority of it goes to that use. It’s an average material as far as fill goes; as long as it’s used properly, it can be used for a subbase, underneath different types of projects. It must be contained, because it has a fairly uniform size and if not contained it doesn’t compact well. It’s a matter of the grading contractor using it in a way that he can get compaction and not have a problem with the stability of the materials.”
It’s up to the COE how often they, or their contractor, will bring a load to Kraemer, says Edwards. “We simply provide capacity,” he asserts. “Sometimes we have advance notice. The dredging contractor generally contacts various sites, as I understand it, to see who has capacity or who’s closest to the cut. It’s all economics.”