Going from 17 feet of depth in the channel to just 2 or 3 feet, “the depth finder on Zach Paider’s 23-foot tow boat on the Mississippi River tells the story of the struggle to keep sediment from choking Lake Pepin.” This was the first sentence of a 2018 Star Tribune article on the sediment buildup in Lake Pepin, and the year Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance heard loud and clear from the boating community that the channel at the head of the lake was no longer safe for navigation.

In 2020, we drafted a letter to Representative Angie Craig (whose district, at the time, included the river) to request help around this growing issue for commercial and recreational boaters. In partnership with groups like River Valley Marina, whose towboat calls for boat groundings were up 300% over historical, we urged Craig’s office to press the Corps to prioritize maintenance of the designated width and depths in the channel at the head of Lake Pepin.

Near Presbyterian Point, the channel’s authorized width (authorized by congress for the Corps of Engineers to maintain) is more than 100 feet wider than the channel sits today. The Corps primary reason for not dredging this area is the lack of placement sites for the silty material. Meanwhile, commercial and recreational traffic crawls through the narrow passage with predictable groundings and damage to vessels.

Every week, LPLA posts the Channel Conditions report from the Corps of Engineers on our website to help boaters access information about the river. The green border indicates “conditions are good - routine dredging may occur.” The yellow border says “use caution when navigating through the area,” and the red border says “use extreme caution when in this area.” And every week, for as long as we have been looking at these channel condition reports, river mile 784.5 - 785.5 (the head of Lake Pepin) is red.

In the above sample from October 18, 2023, the description for the head of Lake Pepin reads “200’ between 9’ contours at flat pool on a 500’ recommended bend.” This translates to “the channel is 200 feet wide in the area the Corps is authorized to dredge, but they would recommend the channel be 500 feet wide.”

Last year the Corps authorized $500,000 to study channel management alternatives that could improve conditions for the stretch of the river shown in the map below (Colvill Park to Greene Point). That report is not yet complete and it does not include considerations for reducing sediment sources.

In our 2020 letter to Rep. Craig, we noted that our coalition can bring together a broad sector of river users to explore continued beneficial use opportunities that alleviate dredging needs, improve commercial and recreational traffic, and support ongoing habitat restoration which would build off the existing project in Bay City and planned project in Wacouta Bay. This could offer a longer-term solution to a narrowing channel, but would require multi-state, multi-agency collaboration.

If we can focus on a concerted effort to address the problem where it is rather than send it further downstream, we have a real opportunity to create multiple benefits for a multi-use river.

Red Wing, Minnesota, is one of only five river ports in Minnesota and located just upstream from the choke point. In 2015, nearly 97,000 tons of commodities moved through Red Wing’s port, according to the Red Wing Port Authority’s website. The port is also a refueling point for the majestic steamboats that bring visitors to the area.