Earlier this week, officials with the Kansas Water Office, along with Westar Energy and Wolf Creek and Gov. Jeff Colyer toured ongoing dredging projects at John Redmond Reservoir.
The Army Corps of Engineers have for a number of years worked to remove sediment from the bottom of the reservoir in addition to many rivers, creeks and streams through more than 30,000 feet of pipe to increase the capacity of the reservoir. Kansas Water Office Director Tracy Streeter says overall it’s been quite the success.
Currently, the only activities at the lake are work on confined disposal facilities where the sediment was stored. One of the sites is in the process of being dried out with the hopes of being repurposed for agricultural use, possibly with a cover crop by this fall or possibly next spring. As for future projects involving the Corps of Engineers, Streeter says a second round of dredging work can’t be ruled out.
Streeter says Gov. Colyer was instrumental in making contacts to allow the project to be expedited.
The dredging project is the first of its kind with a non-federal entity dredging sediment from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir. For more information go online to kwo.org.
