Posted on October 1, 2018
Finding a buyer for much-needed topsoil is the best hope for the sediment-heavy Illinois River.
That’s what a group of some 25 stakeholders that included EastPort Marina, Ducks Unlimited and the Greater Peoria Sanitary District agreed on at a Monday meeting organized by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission.
Dredging the river, specifically the Peoria Lakes portion, is more needed now than ever, said Reema Abi-Akar, a Tri-County planner.
“Outside of the barge channel in the river, there are places where the river is only 18 inches deep,” she said.
The idea isn’t a new one. More than 10 years ago, a “mud to parks” initiative in Chicago saw some 70 barges of sediment from the Fondulac Park District’s Spindler Marina help turn an old steel mill site into a lakefront park.
“Chicago and St. Louis are cities that need mass quantities of topsoil,” said Marlin.
Don McNeill, the strategic growth manager at Caterpillar Inc., asked if there was a way to determine a cost figure for a dredging operation that could be used in a business plan to revitalize the river.
Lees said that a marketing study the group looks to complete would help come up with that number.
Source: JournalStar
