MANHATTAN (KSNT) – Kansans on and around the water at Tuttle Creek Lake will get to see an innovative engineering solution in action this month that aims to save the reservoir from a muddy problem.
The Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently announced in a press release that it will launch the first of three demonstrations of a new Water Injection Dredging (WID) project at Tuttle Creek Lake. The demonstration is currently slated for Sept. 17 and will be active through Sept. 27.
WID involves using a controlled injection of water from a barge to push loose sediment off the bottom of the lake and create a current where it can be carried downstream naturally. The USACE hopes the upcoming demonstration will provide an assessment of the effectiveness of this new method to reduce sediment piling up inside the lake so that it may be applied to other reservoirs in the future.
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“We are excited to launch this first demonstration period for Water Injection Dredging at Tuttle Creek Lake,” said Laura Totten, project manager for the Tuttle Creek Reservoir Water Injection Dredging Demonstration Project at the Kansas City District. “This project represents a significant step forward in exploring sustainable dredging techniques to maintain water storage capacity and evaluate the associated environmental effects.”…