Photo By Christine Reinhardt | A demonstration of the Water Injection Dredging jet bar is performed during a VIP...... read more read more
The year was 1952. The world’s first rock and roll concert was held in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on TV, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president and Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of England. Post-WWII America was rife with invention and innovation. New technologies and scientific advances included development of the Polio vaccine, the first commercial computer and the first airbag for cars.
In the heart of America, however, communities were recovering from devastating flooding from the previous year. The Great Flood of 1951 destroyed thousands of homes, farms and businesses in the Kansas River Basin, causing over $725 million of damage. Despite the destruction it caused, the historic flood set in motion the final piece needed for the construction of one of Kansas’s most vital water resources – Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir.
In 1952, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chief of Engineers approved the Definite Project Report, which used data from the Great Flood of 1951 to finalize the plan for Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir. Engineers with USACE were already several years into the study and design of the dam and reservoir, intended to provide significant flood control, environmental and recreational benefits to the region. With approval of the final report, construction of Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir began in October 1952 – becoming fully operational almost exactly ten years later in July 1962.
“Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir is one unit in the general comprehensive plan for flood control on the Big Blue, Kansas and Missouri rivers,” said Clint Mason, operations technical support branch chief at the Kansas City District. “It’s used for water storage, recreational purposes, wildlife conservation … and provides water for many users in eastern Kansas.”
Located in northeast Kansas, Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir has prevented over $8 billion in flood damages and since its construction, has brought in tens of millions of dollars to the local economy each year. The lake also supplies water for over 40% of the state’s population, including the cities of Manhattan, Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City, Kansas.
Dams and reservoirs built in the 1940s and 1950s were initially designed with a lifespan of 50 to 60 years. Advancements in technology and engineering have extended those original lifespans – allowing for the continued operation and maintenance of hundreds of dams across the country, including Tuttle Creek. But the reservoir faces a significant challenge: sedimentation. The rapid accumulation of sediment, largely unseen by those who depend on it, threatens to diminish the reservoir's storage capacity and jeopardize the water supply for over 1.6 million Kansans.
Under the surface, sediment is stacking up
The USACE engineers who designed Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir knew sediment would accumulate in the lake. When a river is dammed, whatever was in the river naturally settles into the reservoir. Sediment is soil particles and other organic material, typically from erosion, which naturally settle into water. In this case, topsoil, silt and clay from the Big Blue River – a tributary of the Kansas River – become suspended and are deposited into Tuttle Creek Reservoir as they travel through the water system.
Since 1962, 438 million cubic yards of sediment has accumulated beneath the water at Tuttle Creek Reservoir, burying boat ramps, cutting off cove habitats and abandoning water intakes. According to Josh Olson, project management lead at the Kansas Water Office, sediment is deposited into the lake at a rate of six million cubic yards per year. The sediment currently in Tuttle Creek Reservoir is enough to fill up an entire football field, or if stacked vertically, more than nine times the height of the Kansas state capitol.
“Anywhere you’ve dammed up a river, you’re going to have a certain amount of sediment accumulating,” said Olson. “It’s a widespread problem nationally and internationally.”
Many people enjoy Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir for outdoor recreation. Located just two hours west of the Kansas City metro area in Manhattan, Kansas, the lake provides endless fun – from boating and fishing to hiking and camping. But the dam and reservoir also provide critical flood control and water supply for drinking and irrigation. If the reservoir becomes filled with sediment, the ability to provide water for agriculture, public use and recreation will be impossible.
According to Laura Totten, planner and project manager with the Kansas City District, Tuttle Creek Reservoir is currently half full of sediment. Without intentional action, it’s estimated the reservoir will be 75% full of sediment by 2074, and 93% full of sediment by 2124, leaving minimal storage capacity to provide water for a large portion of Kansas’ population.
“There was an anticipated sedimentation rate that would come into Tuttle Creek [Reservoir] and we’re in the range of what we expected,” said Totten. “But we’re in a different timeframe and we have a lot of demand for that water. We just can’t ignore it anymore.”
Engineers, planners and other experts at the Kansas City District and the Kansas Water Office have come together to find a solution – all with the goal of maintaining Tuttle Creek Reservoir’s current storage capacity so Kansans can continue to depend on this resource for their many water needs.
“Sediment filling up our reservoirs is taking away storage that is used for water supply and downstream flow targets, water quality benefits, recreation – all kinds of benefits,” said Olson. “At the heart of this is long-term water supply security.”
Sometimes, common problems warrant uncommon solutions
The Kansas City District operates and manages Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir. However, decades ago, USACE sold a portion of the lake’s storage capacity to the state for public water supply and other uses – this is what’s called the multipurpose pool.
Located at the bottom of the lake, the multipurpose pool sits below the flood control pool, which is managed by USACE. When there is a flood, the flood control pool is used to hold excess water to prevent flooding downstream. Knowing sedimentation will continue to impact Tuttle Creek Reservoir’s storage capacity, USACE and the Kansas Water Office are working together to solve the problem.
“Seven to ten years ago, [USACE and the Kansas Water Office] started having very serious discussions trying to look for a solution,” said Totten. “Water Injection Dredging was just one technology that had never been tried in a reservoir that we thought might be feasible.”
Water Injection Dredging is a process by which a barge with a special jet bar produces low-pressure, high-volume jets of water drawn from the lake. The jet bar is lowered into the water and when it’s activated, sediment is stirred up to form a mixture of sediment and water. This mixture joins the underwater current flowing toward the dam’s outlet and works its way into the downstream channel.
“We believe the sediment will stay in suspension and keep flowing out of the Big Blue River into the Kansas River, into the Missouri River and into the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf,” said Totten.
Unlike traditional dredging where sediment is pumped out of the water and onto an adjacent piece of land to be disposed of later, Water Injection Dredging requires less equipment and energy, making it a more cost-effective option. While the technology is not new, using Water Injection Dredging to manage sediment in a reservoir has never been done before.
“Water Injection Dredging is an established technology, but this is a new application,” said Olson. “We know it works for sediment management in other situations. So, the test here is really, can we use it in a reservoir?”
The Water Injection Dredging pilot project is a collaborative effort between USACE, the Kansas Water Office, other state agencies, other federal agencies and multiple research universities. As Olson said, the pilot project is just a test – to see if Water Injection Dredging is a viable option for managing sediment in Tuttle Creek Reservoir.
The pilot project will consist of three dredging periods. The first one occurred Sept. 17 to 26, 2025. The second period will occur in spring 2026, and the third period will occur in summer 2026. Spreading out the dredging periods will allow the project team to collect data to determine if there are seasonal impacts downstream.
“We’ve been collecting data in the downstream channel for a number of years just to get a good baseline,” said Totten. “While we are doing [the pilot dredging] we can detect any changes that might be concerning.”
Ultimately, the data collected – from water quality to the environmental impacts downstream – will help determine if Water Injection Dredging is a feasible and cost-effective solution for managing sediment in reservoirs. While the pilot project is occurring at Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir, if successful, it could be used in reservoirs across the state, the country and even the world.
“We have a number of reservoirs throughout the state. If we’re really trying to solve our water supply issues and sedimentation issues at those reservoirs, the costs escalate pretty quickly,” said Olson. “Coming up with the most effective way of dealing with the solution is really fundamentally important for actually solving the problem.”
Kansas continues to look to the stars through difficulties
The first pilot period of Water Injection Dredging was successfully completed in late September. Preliminary data obtained from all three dredging periods will be collected and analyzed, used to determine if the project is an effective solution for managing sediment in a reservoir. Even if it’s determined Water Injection Dredging is not a feasible or effective option for maintaining storage capacity at Tuttle Creek Reservoir, the pilot project will provide critical information for the sediment management industry.
“First, we’ll look at how this can be used at Tuttle Creek Reservoir. But we want to share this information. We want to help others,” said Totten. “There are a lot of folks working on [sediment management] worldwide. This will be a very important piece for them as well.”
If Water Injection Dredging proves to be successful in managing sediment at Tuttle Creek Reservoir, it could become part of a larger management plan, used in conjunction with other methods intended to retain the lake’s current storage capacity. According to Totten, whether or not it’s effective, USACE and the Kansas Water Office will continue working together to find a solution for maintaining Tuttle Creek Reservoir’s storage capacity.
“There’s nothing more important to people than water. You can’t live without water,” said Olson. “In eastern Kansas, sedimentation is the biggest threat to maintaining enough water supply in our reservoirs. If we can solve this, it will have huge implications for decades for many Kansans.”
Just like it’s motto, “ad astra per aspera,” which means “to the stars through difficulties,” Kansas is leading the way in finding new solutions to the decades-old problem of sediment management. For the Water Injection Dredging pilot project team, being part of a project that could save one of Kansas’ most important water resources is more than just work – it’s providing life to the communities they call home.
“In the end, we will continue to look at other ways to manage sediment because it’s something that needs to be addressed,” said Totten. “I grew up in Kansas and my family still lives here. It’s important to me and we will continue to look for ways to preserve and save what storage we have left at Tuttle Creek Reservoir.”
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2025 10:45 |
| Story ID: | 552933 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Ad astra per aspera: Kansas a global leader in solving sediment challenges, by Christine Reinhardt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
