Multifunctional Mississippi River leveed bottomlands and settling basins: Sny Island Levee Drainage District

Excerpt

It was Red Rock, Saylorville, and Coralville lakes and the rivers that come out of Iowa that Mike Reed, superintendent of Sny Island Levee Drainage District in western Illinois, watched most closely as extreme weather events and flooding hit the Upper Mississippi River Basin in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The Sny Island Levee Drainage District located along the eastern bank of the Mississippi River (figure 1) controls runoff, holds water, and collects large volumes of sediment in basins using an elaborate maze of levees, basins, and diversion ditches. The Sny River channel, which runs parallel to the Mississippi River, is the central control structure that channels upland waters prior to pumping into the Mississippi River at three separate locations.

The oldest Drainage District in Illinois, officially established in 1880 shortly after the passage of the current Illinois Drainage Law in 1879, the Sny Island Levee Drainage District initially included approximately 44,000 ha (110,000 ac) of floodplain bottomlands with 1,600 ha (4,000 ac) of additional lands annexed later. The drainage district has operated for more than 130 years as a local government levee and drainage district and has been used by the Illinois Supreme Court as a model for the development…