Lock #1 on the Green River, Louisville District.
believe that there are few real flood problems left. This
What about the results of our dredged material
is not the case, and a worthwhile effort could be made
research program? Did they provide the guidance you
to describe the extent of the major flood problem
expected and was it worth 30 million dollars?
areas and the best means to deal with them. We have
perhaps ten or twenty places in the country where
It was worth million; in fact it's paid for itself
people are literally sitting on a powder keg, and they
already. The study was targeted at a national attitude
are going to get hurt unless we do something about it.
that all dredged material is polluted and automatically
bad. This study was started back in the very early
70s and what it's done, if it's done nothing else, is
We hear a lot about non-structural solutions to flood
proven to the world that most dredged material is not
problems now. Is this the solution of the future?
bad. As a matter of fact, a very high percentage of it is
useable material and really a national asset. If it did
Non-structural measures alone cannot solve all our
nothing else, that valuable goal was accomplished. In
problems. However, non-structural solutions are
addition we learned some new techniques for storing
considered in every situation we encounter-flood
dredged material: how to handle it, what kind of
control as well as other water resources projects. We
dredges to use and many other things. In the Great
seldom develop a plan that is totally non-structural or
Lakes alone we saved over million right off the
totally structural. We integrate both methods on a
bat since we didn't have to build dikes to contain
case-by-case basis.
dredged material.
WATERSPECTRUM,FALL1990
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