Iowa DNR hires Ohio-based company for Palisades-Kepler dam mitigation project

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (KCRG) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has hired a company to help make changes to the dam at Palisades-Kepler State Park.

That dam at the park is called a low-head dam. These types of dams are particularly dangerous because of the reverse currents they create. These currents can trap people under the water and drown them.

The dam at Palisades-Kepler State Park was built in the 1930s to create an area for boating and fishing upstream.

Along with the risk of drowning, the dam is now falling apart. There’s a breach on one side, and steel girders are sticking out of the ground.

A company from Ohio, Stantec Consulting Services, will gather information and devise a plan to either remove the dam or transform it with a series of boulders called a ‘rock arch rapids.’

The first step in the project is to gather input from those who use the park regularly.

“The way that people use the park is really important to us. We do intend for this whole area to be a public amenity. Something that people really enjoy. Getting people’s thoughts on how they use it, what they like to be close to. Oftentimes that’s water, right? If there’s things we can do within the project to incorporate all those ideas, with the paramount one really being public safety, can we hit all of that at the same time,” said Nate Hoogeveen, director of river programs at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The project is estimated to cost between one million and 2 and a half million dollars.

It could take between a year and a half to 3 years for construction to begin at the dam. From there, construction itself could take up to a year.

”It would be reasonable to assume in a 1 and a half to 3 year time frame that we could be talking about equipment being in the channel and changing things around to something that looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing,” Hoogeveen said.

Public input will be collected for the project in either late May or early June .

One of the top priorities in this project is safety. But the DNR also wants to protect recreation and fish in the area.

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