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  • Proceedings from the Soft Substrate Island Design Workshop

    Abstract: This report summarizes the activities of the Soft Substrate Design Workshop held virtually on 08 September 2021. The 28 participants from federal, state, local, and academic organizations discussed designing and constructing islands with soft sediments in inland waterways. They were introduced to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) initiative and the vision for Tri-County Planning Commission (Peoria, Illinois). An overview of collaborative projects using landscape architecture and EWN principles was provided. The focus of discussion was on two primary waterways, the Upper Mississippi River System, and Illinois River. Participants discussed their experience associated with designing and constructing islands with and on soft sediments prior to breakout sessions to discuss specific design and contracting elements. The groups were brought together to discuss design techniques that could be implemented in the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River systems.
  • A Review of Algal Phytoremediation Potential to Sequester Nutrients from Eutrophic Surface Water

    Abstract: Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and coastal hypoxic zones are evidence of cultural nutrient enrichment affecting public health and water supplies, aquatic ecosystem health, and economic well-being in the United States. Recognition of the far-reaching impacts of Midwest agriculture has led to establishing nutrient reduction objectives for surface waters feeding the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, and many smaller water bodies. Municipal nutrient enrichment impacts have been addressed by increasing levels of sewage treatment and waste management through the Clean Water Act era, but HABs rebounded in the 1990s because of non-point source nutrient enrichment. HAB control and treatment includes watershed and waterbody treatments to reduce loading and address outbreaks. Systems to remove nutrients from impaired waters are expensive to build and operate. This review of algal production systems summarizes emerging algal water treatment technologies and considers their potential to effectively sequester nutrients and atmospheric carbon from hundreds of eutrophic reservoirs and DoD wastewater treatment facilities while producing useful biomass feedstock using solar energy. Algal water treatment systems including open ponds, photobioreactors, and algal turf scrubbers® can be used to grow biomass for biofuel, wastewater treatment, and commercial products. This review recommends continuing research on surface water nutrient reduction potential with algal turf scrubber productivity pilot studies, preliminary site design, and biomass utilization investigations.
  • Spatial Screening for Environmental Pool Management Opportunities

    Abstract: US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reservoir projects significantly alter river ecosystem structure and function. Each project adheres to a defined set of operating rules to achieve primary objectives, which typically include flood risk management, hydropower, or navigation along with ancillary objectives for drinking water/irrigation, recreation, and natural resources management. Environmental flows (E-Flows) planning under the Sustainable Rivers Program has demonstrated new opportunities for environmental pool management (EPM; Theiling et al. 2021a, 2021b) that have no negative impact on other reservoir functions. In some locations, water level drivers can be managed to improve ecological outcomes, like wetlands, waterbirds, reptiles, and water quality, by altering the magnitude, timing, frequency, and duration of pool level changes that affect riparian and shoreline plant communities. Reservoirs with large delta areas may provide particularly important wetland or riparian habitat management along avian migratory pathways or in wildlife conservation regions (Johnson 2002). These large deltas can be identified and characterized using available satellite imagery, which along with water level habitat drivers available in hydrology databases, can be used to identify USACE reservoirs with good potential for EPM. A spatial analysis of USACE reservoirs capable to support EPM can be developed utilizing estimates of water occurrence, transition, and seasonality as well as surface elevation data derived from satellite imagery to assess geomorphology drivers. USACE water management records can be used to assess wetland drivers. Nationwide screening will be broken down into ecoregions to establish the anticipated geographic range of variation for wetland and riparian habitat drivers. Southwestern US reservoirs, for example, will have much different hydrology and fauna than Midwest and Eastern US reservoirs.
  • Review of Riparian Models for Assessing Ecological Impacts and Benefits

    BACKGROUND: Riparian zones are key transitional ecosystems between upland and aquatic zones, and these systems are often degraded due to both land use change and stream processes (e.g., deforestation and water impoundments and/or diversions). These important ecosystems require restoration because of the many benefits they provide ranging from providing habitat for diverse species to promoting water quality. Restoration practitioners, regulators, and researchers require riparian assessment methods and models to efficiently guide mitigation and restoration planning. This technical note (TN) compiles a subset of existing riparian tools and evaluates them relative to model objectives, modeling approach, and input variables. Findings are synthesized into a gap analysis of these models to inform future riparian model development and improve riparian assessment.
  • Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tracer Dyes Potential for Monitoring Herbicide Spray Distribution

    Purpose: Chemical control of nuisance aquatic vegetation has long been the most widely utilized management tool due to its high level of efficacy, limited environmental impacts, and relatively low cost. However, unprecise application of herbicides can lead to uncontrolled invasive plants and unintended management costs. Therefore, precision herbicide delivery techniques are being developed to improve invasive plant control and minimize impacts to non-target plants. These technological advancements have the potential to enhance aquatic ecosystem protection from invasive species while reducing associated management costs. Despite the benefits of using registered herbicides for aquatic plant control in efforts to restore aquatic habitats, their use is often misunderstood and opposed by public stakeholders. This can lead to significant challenges related to chemical control of nuisance aquatic vegetation. Thus, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Districts seek improved methods to monitor and quantify the distribution (i.e., amount of herbicide retained on plant foliage compared to those deposited into the water column) of herbicides applied in aquatic systems. Monitoring herbicide movement in aquatic systems can be tedious and costly using standard analytical methods. However, since the inert fluorescent tracer dye Rhodamine WT (RWT) closely mimics product movement in the aquatic environment it has been used as a cost-effective surrogate for herbicides tracing.
  • Rapid Algae Flotation Techniques

    Abstract: Some harmful algae produce mucilage or extracellular polymeric substances useful for flotation. This study evaluated natural polysaccharides to determine effects on algal flotation with DAF. Food-grade gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, gum arabic, gellan gum, and diutan gum) were tested with cyanobacteria cultures singly and in combination with commercial flocculants (including Tramfloc 222 and Tramfloc 300). Gum arabic alone had no effect when evaluated at concentrations between 10 mg/L and 5,000 mg/L. However, the combination of gum arabic and Tramfloc 300 yielded higher algal flocculation than Tramfloc 300 alone. The combination of xanthan gum (anionic) and guar gum (cationic) did not perform at the level of the combined xanthan gum and Tramfloc 222 in either flocculation or flotation of algae. Tramfloc 222 and xanthan gum; however, yielded effective flocculation seemingly resistant to changes in interfering factors such as turbulence, pH, and temperature. Furthermore, the combination of xanthan gum and Tramfloc 222 provided the most effective flotation and flocculation independent of pH effects. The results suggest that anionic polysaccharides can be used to increase the efficacy of cationic coagulants such as Tramfloc 222.
  • Burgess-Capps Cabin: Historic Context, Maintenance Issues, and Measured Drawings

    Abstract: The Burgess-Capps Cabin is located on the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), Colorado, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1975 under the name of “Pioneer Cabin.” The building is currently not occupied but used as a history interpretive site. It is one of the few log cabins that remain in this part of Colorado from the time of European settlement. All buildings, especially historic ones, require regular planned maintenance and repair. The most notable cause of historic build-ing element failure or decay is not the fact that the historic building is old, but rather, it is caused by incorrect or inappropriate repair or basic neglect of the historic building fabric. This document is a maintenance manual compiled with as-is conditions of construction materials of the cabin. The secretary of interior’s guidelines on rehabilitation and repair per material are discussed to provide the cultural resources manager at USAFA a guide to maintain this historic building. Additional chapters include information regarding the historic materials and a structural analysis. This report satisfies Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 as amended and will help USAFA’s Cultural Resources Management Office to manage this historic building.
  • José María Gil Adobe: Historic Context, Maintenance Issues, Measured Drawings, and Adaptive Reuse

    Abstract: The José María Gil Adobe, located on Fort Hunter Liggett, California, was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1974. The building has been vacant since the early 1970s. It is a fine example of a small adobe ranch house possessing character-defining features of its period of significance of the mid-19th century on its exterior, interior, and within the site itself. This document is a reconstruction, repair, maintenance, and adaptive reuse report compiled with photographed, written, and drawn as-is conditions of construction materials of the José María Gil Adobe building and site. The building was 3D scanned to obtain the necessary information for the measured drawings. The secretary of the interior’s guidelines on rehabilitation and repair per material are discussed to provide the cultural resources manager at Fort Hunter Liggett a guide to maintain this historic building. Rehabilitation is the best option for the successful reuse of the José María Gil Adobe as it will move the building from a vacant status to an occupied status. It is highly likely that this building can again serve an appropriate use as outlined in Section 11, reflecting its appearance in the early 20th century or WWII periods.
  • Beneficial Use of Dredged Material: A Workshop to Explore Engineered Drainage Soils for Stormwater Management

    PURPOSE: Beneficial use of dredged material in engineered soils is an alternative to achieve environmental and economic sustainability for waterway operations. Engineered soils can combine navigation and environmental dredging with municipal and commercial waste streams to create a valuable commercial soil product while reducing public operating costs, creating economic opportunity, and creating better soil products for lower cost. The need, opportunities, and challenges to establishing an Illinois Waterway-based commercial soil industry were explored by river, highway, stormwater, environmental resource managers, and industry experts in a workshop in Peoria, IL, on 4–5 September 2019.
  • Full-Scale Trafficability Testing of Prototype Submersible Matting Systems

    Abstract: This report describes the full-scale evaluation of prototype submersible matting systems (SUBMAT) at a test site at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Vicksburg, Mississippi, site. The SUBMAT prototypes were designed to bridge the gap between high and low tide at a beach interface to enable 24-hour operation at an expeditionary watercraft landing site. This phase of the SUBMAT prototype development was intended to determine prototype system durability by applying military vehicle loads representing a combat brigade insertion across a littoral zone. The two mat systems evaluated in this study were the PYRACELL Road Building System (PRBS) and a basaltic rebar mat system. The results of the study showed that the PRBS system was able to sustain 1,000 Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement, 350 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck, and over 150 M1A1 main battle tank passes without significant damage. The basaltic rebar mat failed early in the test and was removed from further consideration for the SUBMAT application. Observations and lessons learned from this phase of the prototype PRBS development will be used to improve the PRBS design and modify its installation procedures for improved efficiency.