(BLAIR, NE) The Missouri River is home to the endangered pallid sturgeon. The US Army Corps of Engineers is creating a new home for the fish as part of the Missouri River Recovery Program.

We headed upstream four miles after launching near Blair, Nebraska, to the Tyson bend backwater construction site.

"From the planning to the construction stage, it's probably about three years," says Matt Krajewski, USACE Omaha District Project Manager.    

Now the project is in its last month of dredging after some setbacks.

"Dredging in itself is such that it breaks down quite a bit. We've had quite a few breakdowns," says Greg Horihan, USACE Omaha District Construction Manager.    

Low water early in the season caused overdigging in the channel, but now the river banks are crashing down. The pipes suck the sediment out of the backwater and into the river.

"The goal of the project is to create off-channel water that's connected to the river that is at a shallower depth and a slower velocity than the river normally has," says Krajewski.

It creates a habitat and restores the ecosystem back to pre-dam conditions.

"The fish like to go back up into that slower water so they'll just naturally migrate up in there," says Krajewski.

The US Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District has six projects in the works.
   
"The Missouri River Recovery Program and the ecosystem restoration for the pallid sturgeon itself runs from Sioux City down to St. Louis, Missouri," says Krajewski.    

The goal is to keep the ray-finned fish swimming along the banks of the Mighty Mo.

"The decline of this, this fish, or this species of fish, could mark the decline of many other things. We're not sure what yet but the decline of this fish is just one step in a much longer chain," says Krajewski.

The Missouri River Recovery Program is federally funded. The Tyson bend backwater project has a $4 million price tag. The Corps hopes to be completely finished by September.

Reported by Erika Thomas. You can contact her at ethomas@kmeg.com.