August 13, 2019, Tuesday - Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam Public Meeting at Mill City Museum

Time: 6:00-8:00pm

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd Street

Public Meeting: Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock Disposition Study

The St. Paul District Corps of Engineers is planning to conduct public meetings for the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam Disposition study in August 2019.

- The first public meeting will be on Tuesday, August 13th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN.

- The second public meeting will be on Monday, August 19th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Michael Dowling school, 3900 W. River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN.

Disposition studies examine the benefits and costs of continuing to operate Federal projects which are no longer serving their authorized purposes. The navigation operations at Upper St. Anthony falls lock and dam ceased on 9 June 2015 by order of Section 2010 of the Water Resources Reform and Redevelopment Act of 2014. Since that time, the lock has been operated only for flood mitigation and visitor tours.

The Upper St. Anthony Falls Disposition study will look at three main alternatives: 1) No action, continue operating it as it is presently, 2) deauthorize all remaining Federal purposes, and dispose of the Federal property, and 3) retain those features of the project required to continue Corps operations for flood mitigation while deauthorizing and disposing of other features of the project. Only the U.S. Congress can deauthorize the purposes of the Federal project.

The Corps will also be seeking public input on a) maintaining or improving the human environment at Upper St. Anthony Falls, b) maintaining or improving the natural environment at Upper St. Anthony Falls, and c) maintaining or improving recreational opportunities at Upper St. Anthony Falls.

An official notice regarding these meetings and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act will be posted in the Federal Register and a further public notice will be issued in late July, 2019.

The public meetings and written comments help to define the scope of an Environmental Assessment and guide the scope of the disposition study. A draft disposition study report for Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam will be available in spring 2020. A separate study for Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and Lock and Dam 1 will start in approximately December 2020, and a separate series of public meetings will be planned in early 2021.

For more information on the studies, please visit their website at:https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/MplsLocksDisposition/