Engineers monitor Wood River Levee

KSDK -- St. Louis District geotechnical engineers have installed equipment to monitor sand movement along the Wood River Levee near the Melvin Price Locks and Dam in Alton, Illinois because of water seeping under the levee, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The issue was spotted east of Highway 143 where water from the levee underseepage and inland rainfall collects and was pumped into the Mississippi River.

District engineers said they have seen small amounts of sand in the water apparently being carried from under the levee by groundwater flow from the river, especially when the river was high.

Chief of Engineering and Construction Division Dave Busse said it was not at the magnitude of larger sand boils. But, he said, if left unrepaired before the next flood event, there was an unacceptable level of risk that the levee could possibly fail under some circumstances.

District geotechnical engineers do not feel that failure was an imminent threat and they were working on a long term solution.