Sand & Gravel Dredging

The Kansas River has been commercially mined (dredged) for sand and gravel since the early 1900’s. Dredging activities have been documented to have caused significant damage to riverbed, habitat, and water quality. To fully understand the impacts of sand dredging one must have some basic knowledge of river hydrology (science of water). Rivers are not static and react to both acts of nature and man.

When man or the dredging companies, in this case, take sand and gravel out of the riverbed the river’s reaction is to fill the hole that is made when the sand is removed. Prior to the 1960’s and before the completion of the 18 federal reservoirs in the Kansas River watershed, a much larger quantity of sand was naturally transported from tributaries to the main river replacing some of the material removed by the sand dredges. Now the dams on the reservoirs block most of the movement of sand to the Kansas River from the tributaries. Since the 1960’s “head cutting” has become more common as the river continues to fill the holes caused by dredging. “Head cutting” happens when the river takes sand and dirt from the banks up stream from the location of the dredging operation to fill the hole. Sometimes “head cutting” causes destruction of trees and vegetation (riparian forest) growing on banks or sometimes it just takes land from river side property owners like farmers and ranchers. Degradation to the bank caused by head-cutting is generally stabilized with concrete rubble and in some cases other unsuitable material like tires and old car bodies. The riparian forest and vegetation which supported native habitat are lost along with their root systems that filtered polluted urban and agricultural run-off. If a bridge support, water intake or another structure is up stream from the dredge sites, sand and dirt can be taken near or under these structures sometimes causing damage to the structures that is very costly to repair. Repair of these structures is usually paid for by our tax dollars.

Habitat (the plant and animal life in or near the river) and water quality are damaged by the increased presence of dirt particles suspended in the water. Again when “head cutting” happens the particles of sand tend to fill the hole but the particles of dirt tend to stay suspended in the water. Also the mechanical activity of dredging sand stirs up the sediments on the riverbed and re-suspends dirt particles. These dirt particles create a blanket of silt on the down stream riverbed so native plants and animals who are used to clearer water cannot survive. This also has a domino adverse affect on native plants and animals which live on the banks of the river. These dirt particles sometimes are contaminated with harmful chemicals like chlordane, a banned chemical used to exterminate termites. Increased quantities of dirt particles and contaminated dirt particles are more costly to remove from your drinking water.

In-river dredging operations also degrade water quality because they are allowed to directly return river water that is sucked up with the sand and gravel from the bottom of the river. These sand dredging operations daily discharge pollutants from pipes and ditches directly to the Kaw. Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) does not require dredging companies to obtain National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for these point source pollution discharges nor do they require these operations to use regularly maintained settling ponds before these waters are discharged back to the Kaw.

Boaters should be cautious when paddling or motoring by a dredge particularly if it is activiely mining sand as cables attaching dredge machine to bank can be a hazard. Cables can be just under the surface of the water, above the surface of the water or moving up and down near the surface of the water.

Friends of the Kaw understands that sand is needed for a health construction economy but believes sand can be reasonably and efficiently obtained from pit mines in the Kansas River valley. Friends of the Kaw has actively promoted this philosophy for the past ten years and believes progress is being made but you can help by joining Friends of the Kaw. Your membership helps support the Kansas Riverkeeper who is closely monitoring and studying this issue. We can also contact you to attend hearings, write letters or participate in other activities to assist our grassroots campaign to protect and preserve your Kansas River.

Status of current in-river dredge permits obtained from physical observation and correspondence with the COE accompanied by photos if available:

1. Kaw Valley Companies at river mile 9.4 – 10.4 (just up river from the Turner Bridge): Inactive. A dredge machine was placed in the river at this location in spring of 2006 but removed dredge within a year of placement. Kaw Valley Companies purchased Holliday Sand & Gravels dry plant on Woodend Rd. (just west of I-435) and moved permit to this location. The COE granted this move and is not required to give notice to the general public.
   
   
   
   
2. Kaw Valley Companies at river mile 12.8 – 13.9 (below the WaterOne jetty): Active
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Water taken from the river during the dredging process is returned 
   to the river via this cut channel.
   
   

3. Holliday Sand and Gravel at river mile 18.4 – 10.4 (2 miles down river from the K-7 Bridge): Active
   
   
   
   
4. Holliday Sand and Gravel at river mile 20.35 – 20.6 (just down river from the K-7 Bridge): Active
   
   
   
   
5. Holliday Sand and Gravel at river mile 21. 0 – 21.15 (just up river from the K-7 Bridge): Active
   
   
   

   Notice: Dark discharge spewing from pipe in middle right of photo.

6. Kaw Sand Company at river mile 42.6 – 44.1 (just down river from the Eudora Bridge): Inactive
   

7. Kaw Sand Company at river mile 47.1 – 48.0 (just up river from the entrance of Mud Creek): Active.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Penny’s Concrete Inc. at river mile 45.2 – 46.7: Inactive
   
   
   
   
9. Penny’s Concrete Inc. at river mile 49.6 – 51.35 (just down river from the Bowersock Dam): Active
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Kansas Sand and Concrete at river mile 84.5 – 85.8 (just down river from the Hwy. 75 bridge in Topeka): Inactive Requested to leave this location by COE in August of 2006 because of unacceptable degradation to the riverbed (lowering of the bed of more that 2’ in a five year period.) This company has moved to a pit mine just south of the Kansas River near Valencia Rd.
    
    
    
    
    

    Damaged dredge left on river.

11. Victory Sand (owned by Meier’s Ready Mix) at river mile 86.3 – 86.5 (just up river from the Hwy 75 Bridge in Topeka): Inactive, also requested to leave this location in August of 2006 because of unacceptable degradation to the river bed.
    
    
    
    
12. Meier’s Ready Mix at river mile 90.1 – 91.6 (app. 5 miles west of Hwy 75 Bridge): Inactive, requested to leave this location in August of 2007 by COE because of unacceptable degradation to the riverbed.
    
    

The current status of in-river dredging permits:

The COE and the state of Kansas will continue to permit existing operations on a 5 year basis. Permits that have been pending since 2003 have just been approved so the next review of permits will occur in 2012.

Brief history of Friends of the Kaw’s (FOK) fight to end in-river sand dredging on the Kansas River:

• August 1991 – several residents of north Lawrence formed Friends of the Kaw. To the present Friends of the Kaw has successfully mounted public support and obtained denial of four (4) proposed sand dredging permits in a pristine section of the Kansas River between the communities of Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. This involved mailings, phone calls and going door-to-door to get FOK members and community members apprised of permits and hearings.
• At a public hearing organized by the Corps of Engineers (COE) on May 16, 1995 considering Victory Sand and Gravel Company’s application (for an in-river operation to be located 4 miles above River Front Park in Lawrence) over 300 people gathered at the Perry/Lecompton High School during a thunder storm and tornado warning to express their opposition to opening this section of the Kansas River to in-river dredging operations. Since this hearing the COE has declined to offer subsequent public hearings considering in-river dredging permits on the Kansas River reasoning that “no new information” would be presented.

• In early 1996 Friends of the Kaw members Lance Burr, Mike Calwell and Patty Boyer lobbied the Kansas Legislature to pass a bill to impose a moratorium on new dredging activities in the Kansas River. This bill passed in the Senate but not in the House.

• In response to the Herculean effort mounted by Friends of the Kaw to impose a moratorium on new dredging activities, the 1996 Omnibus Bill provided for a Recreational Study of the Kansas River which when presented in 1997, showed that the state of Kansas could economically benefit by developing the Kansas River for recreational tourism.
• On June 25, 2003 Lance Burr, Laura Calwell, Mike Calwell and Charles Benjamin met with Joyce Allegrucci, then Governor Sebelius’ chief of staff and Joe Harkins then the Chairman of the Sub Cabinet on Natural Resources. Joe Harkins relates that the Sub Cabinet is ready to begin the process of moving in-river sand dredging operations to pit mining operations. The process was to begin with formation of a task force to make recommendations to the state on this matter.
• August 8 2003, COE releases for public comment the reauthorization of proposed 10-year permits (previously 5 year permits) for 12 in-river dredging operations along the Kansas River.

• August 15, 2003 Friends of the Kaw joins forces with Kansas Sierra Club, Kansas Wildlife Federation, Audubon of Kansas, Kansas Canoe Association, Kansas Natural Resource Council, and the Nature Conservancy to protest proposed permits and garner public support for public hearing on proposed dredging permits by email and written notices to thousands of Kansans.

• October 2003 at the close of public comment period, the COE receives over 350 comments and all but two ask for a public hearing and the majority ask for proposed permits to be denied. Friend of the Kaw recommends to “Issue 5-year UNRENEWABLE permits which will allow commercial sand and gravel companies currently using sites on the Kansas River to transition their operations off river, to pit mines, in the Kansas River valley.” Also included are responses with concerns from the U. S. EPA; U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service; Kansas Biological Survey; Kansas Lower Republican Basin Advisory Committee and for the first time a joint, unified response from the Kansas Governor’s Sub-Cabinet on Natural Resources including Kansas Departments of Agriculture, Health and Environment, Wildlife and Parks, State Conservation Director and Kansas Water Office. The Sub-Cabinet asks the COE for a public hearing to address:
  
  

1. The potential impact of dredging operations on public water supply intakes, other water supply intakes, bridges, pipeline crossings and other structures;
2. The potential impact of dredging operations on river’s banks; the impact of dredging operations on use of the Kansas River for recreation;
3. The potential impact of dredging activities on fish and wildlife;
4. And the potential for dredging activities to adversely affect water quality.
   

• The Sub-cabinet also recommends that a Task Force be formed in 2004 to research and provide a recommendation on the future of in-river sand dredging by August 2008. The task force was subsequently replaced and purposed broadened with the Technical Advisory Committee on Kansas River Channel Degradation proposal to the Kansas Water Authority.

• January 13, 2005 the Kansas-Lower Republican Basin Advisory Committee strongly supports Kansas Water Plan Concept Paper on Channel Degradation in the Kansas River be presented for consideration to the Kansas Water Authority (KWA) on January 27, 2005.
• After comments by Woody Moses, director of the Kansas Aggregate Producers’ Association and by Laura Calwell, Kansas Riverkeeper and internal discussion, the KWA approves the first phase of the plan to convene a Technical Advisory Committee consisting of representatives from appropriate agency’s to quantify primary causes of degradation to the channel of the Kansas River which are considered to be:
  
  
  1. Degradation of the Missouri riverbed – over the years engineering by the COE to straighten out of the Missouri River through Kansas City to accommodate barge traffic has caused the faster flow of water which over time has scoured and deepened the channel of the Missouri River. As the Missouri River channel cuts down it also causes the deepening of on the lower portion of tributary rivers like the Kansas River. At this time the Water One weir (which is in jeopardy of failure) is the hard point that is stopping this degradation in the lower Kansas River.
  2. An effect of federal dams on Kansas River tributaries - when water is released from reservoirs it is relatively silt free and attracts silt particles from the bed and banks below the dams. Also the dams are now trapping sand that used to freely move from tributaries to the Kansas River.
  3. Commercial in-river dredging operations (see Sand Dredging Impacts of the Kansas River.)
     
  
  
• The TAC met from January to June 2005 to prepare the Kansas River Channel Degradation report and recommendations but did not quantify primary causes of degradation because of lack of specific technical data on the condition of the Kansas River.
• The KWA authorizes continuation of the TAC to begin a comprehensive study on the sections of the Kansas River between WaterOne weir and Bowersock Dam (seven of the twelve current dredging permits are located in this section.), funding cross sections every 4.5 miles on the Kansas River to augment data currently being collected by the dredging industry on sections where active dredging occurs and funding a the completion of a limited index of biological integrity for the lower Kansas River segments. (This study would update the study Frank Cross did in the early 1980s.)
• TAC committee is expanded to add stakeholders to include Kansas Riverkeeper, Laura Calwell and Woody Moses, director of the Kansas Aggregate Producers’ Association and continues to meet on a regular basis.
• At the TAC committee meeting on April 20, 2006 it was decided to NOT recommend to the State of Kansas that in-river dredging permits be phased out and required to move operations to pit mines because not enough technical information has been collected on the historical and current condition of the Kansas River.
• The COE approved reauthorization of nine dredging permits for five more years. Permits will be reviewed in 2012.