From the DNR website: DNR seeks comments on environmental assessment worksheet for Lock and Dam Pool Teo embankment protective island The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is accepting comments through November 12th on an environmental assessment worksheet for a proposed project to construct a protective island on the Mississippi River. The island would be located upstream of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lock and Dam Pool Two embankment in Dakota County, just upstream of Hastings, Minnesota.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District is proposing to protect the Lock and Dam Two embankment from erosion by constructing an offshore protective island. The island would result in a variety of unique habitat types that are not now present in the project area.

Some of these habitat types include forest, brush/grassland, beach, fish overwintering areas and emergent wetlands. The island would be constructed with sediments dredged from the Mississippi River.

Copies of the EAW are available on the project page (https:// www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/ environmentalreview/lock-anddam- 2/index.html). Additional copies may be requested by call- ing 651-259-5694.

The EAW is available for public review at: Pleasant Hill Library, 1490 S. Frontage Road, Hastings, MN 55033 The EAW was published Oct. 12 in the EQB Monitor. Written comments on the EAW may be submitted no later than 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12, to the attention of: Kathy Metzker, DNR Ecological and Water Resources Division, 500 Lafayette Road, Box 25, St. Paul, MN 55155-4025.

Electronic or email comments may be sent to environmentalrev. [email protected] (link sends email) with “Protective Island” in the subject line. People who submit comments will receive a copy of the decision document, which includes responses to comments.

Because all comments and related information are part of the public record for this environmental review, commenters’ names and email or postal addresses, as they appear in the materials they submit, will be published and publicly available.

Why does the DNR want to put a new, 38+ acre island north of Lock and Dam Number Two? The primary goal is to protect the embankment from multiple erosive forces acting on it. A secondary goal is to provide a beneficial use of various materials gathered when the dredge the river. The construction would likely begin in 2021 and take at least three construction seasons to complete. The main issue being that construction would be done solely with marine equipment, which forces construction to happen between May and November.

There are several documents available for review on the DNR’s EAW website listed above.

The proposed location of the new island in the Mississippi River, upstream of Lock and Dam #2 in Hastings. The island is designed to slow erosion damage to the area surrounding Lock and Dam #2. Photo courtesy of the Department of Natural Resources plan.