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The 1990 Corps of Engineers Regulatory Report and Plan was written “in response to various questions and concerns raised in recent years regarding potential adverse impacts which may be occurring as a result of commercial dredging activities on the Kansas River.” The report sites over twenty studies on the impacts of in-river sand and gravel mining or dredging on the Kansas River resulting in many conflicting recommendations on the future of in-river sand dredging and we summarize their major findings below.

• In 1967 the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that commercial dredging activities are the primary cause of riverbed degradation in the lower Kansas River.

• Also in 1967 the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that “sand and gravel producers should be encouraged to seek less environmentally sensitive land sites in the Kansas River’s flood plain (in lieu of river dredging) for commercial sand and gravel extraction.

• In 1978 the Kansas City District of the Corps of Engineers informed all concerned Federal and State agencies that its findings indicate that the unrestricted removal of sand and gravel form the Kansas River has resulted in “significant adverse impacts.”

• In 1983 Li, Simons Assoc. and the Kansas City District of the Corps of Engineers were in general agreement that “Sand and gravel dredging appears to be the primary cause of the bank erosion and channel widening in the lower 30 miles of the Kansas River.”

• In the fall of 1984 the Kansas City District of the Corps of Engineers in it’s conclusion from a comprehensive plan to regulate commercial dredging on the Kansas River states “the impacts associated with commercial dredging activities on the river could be limited by restricting the quantity of sand and gravel that can be extracted. However, nothing less than a total cessation of dredging would be expected to entirely eliminate adverse impacts upstream of river mile 22.”

• The 1986 Booker report states that pit mining in the Kansas River’s flood plain is an economically viable alternative for most Kansas River dredging operations.

• In the winter of 1986 KCD determined that as little as 2 –3 feet of additional riverbed degradation in the lower Kansas River and in the Topeka area would result in million s of dollars in economic losses to non-dredging concerns.

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