Environmental Enhancement of Infrastructure
Big River at Calico Creek Fletcher, Missouri, United States
Restoring a river to its historical natural form and function. Until the early 1970s, the Southeast Missouri Lead District was the world leader in lead production for nearly 100 years. Mining operations introduced gravel, sand, and silt-sized mine waste material into the Big River. During elevated flows, this material is transported downstream, depositing into both the channel and floodplain. Most impacted areas of the watershed are now designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Superfund site. In coordination with state partners, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)–St. Louis District entered into an agreement with USEPA to design and construct a series of bank stabilization features in the Big River watershed near the confluence of the Calico Creek tributary. Historical imagery and topographic maps suggest that heavy equipment severely altered Calico Creek, creating an undesirable configuration near its confluence with the Big River. This project reconfigured the creek channel to its assumed previous layout and dimension, restoring it to a more natural form and function more conducive to balanced sediment transport through the reach.
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