Barge Traffic Around Alma Picking Up- COE

ST. PAUL DISTRICT
News Release

May 20, 2014
MVP-PA-2014-037
Patrick Moes: 651-290-5202, 651-366-7539 [email protected]
Shannon Bauer: 651-290-5108, 612-840-9453, [email protected]
George Stringham: 651-290-5201, 651-262-6804, [email protected]

Corps of Engineers to start removing dredged material near Alma, Wis.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will start removing 500,000 cubic yards of dredged material from the Grand Encampment island placement site, in Buffalo County, Wis., this week.

The Corps’ contractor, Black River Constructors Joint Venture, is scheduled to work throughout the summer. The joint venture includes JF Brennan Marine from La Crosse, Wis., and Hoffman Construction from Black River Falls, Wis.

The contractor has indicated they will route the dredged material through the Alma Marina prior to placing it at two separate contractor-selected locations outside of Alma, Wis. The contractor will use approximately 30 trucks per hour to move the material to the two locations, Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., and occasionally on Saturdays. Prior to moving the material, the contractor will be responsible for acquiring all necessary permits.

The Corps needs to remove the dredged material from the island in order to continue using it as a placement site for maintenance of the 9-foot navigation channel. The channel provides the necessary depth for commercial navigation to transport goods to and from the Upper Midwest.

The nearly 650 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2011 $175 million budget, nearly 2,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $271 million to the national economy. For more information, see http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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Its ok for 30 trucks per hr to haul river sand on the tax payers dime but its not ok for companies to haul 5-10 trucks per hour of frac sand?

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Its ok for 30 trucks per hr to haul river sand on the tax payers dime but its not ok for companies to haul 5-10 trucks per hour of frac sand?

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I agree 100% Kris .
Shawn

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Its ok for 30 trucks per hr to haul river sand on the tax payers dime but its not ok for companies to haul 5-10 trucks per hour of frac sand?

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I agree 100% Kris .
Shawn

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City and County agencies should be allowed at that sand with NO FEES to restock the sand supply for winter seeing this is being funded threw tax dollars prior to private company’s gaining from it.

You guys made me curious, so I asked the Corp.

Brian,

The truck hauling is really out of our scope with this project. I believe the Wisconsin DNR may have permitting authority for this activity so they would be the best source to answer this question.

Hope the fishing is good down river.

V/R
Patrick Moes
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
St. Paul District

It would be interesting to know what the WI DNR would say…but you folks will have to contact them.

One of the major concerns with these new mines popping up is the wear and tear on the roads from the trucks. These companies are puttinf 10x the amount of road repair back into the county’s tax revenue.

The corps are taking sand out of the alma marina meaning they will be tearing up hw35 and clogging up the roads during a busy “tourist” time of year. Like I said. If this was a frac mine people would have a fit