were four permit requests for fleeting areas with a combined 

 capacity of 240 barges (UMRCC 1982) . A major commercial mussel 

 bed is located in this area and at least one of the permits was 

 opposed by the Illinois Department of Conservation and the U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service on environmental grounds, including 

 possible damage to the mussel bed. Sixty-five miles upstream on a 

 major tributary of the Mississippi River, the Illinois River, 

 there are several mussel beds where Naples Terminal Company 

 requested permits to fleet 563 barges. A request for expansion of 

 a fleeting area in the east channel of the Mississippi River at 

 Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, has been embroiled in controversy 

 because the Higgin's-eye pearly mussel ( Lampsilis higginsi ) , an 

 endangered species, occurs there (UMRCC 1983). 



HISTORY OF THE PROJECT 



The original grant-in-aid award was from 1 October 1982 to 3 

 September 1983 to survey one or more mussel beds in a reach of the 

 Illinois River between river miles 51.2 and 54.3, where the 



Soyland Power Cooperative had been granted a permit to construct a 



i 



barge unloading facility. The final product of the project was to 



include a detailed plan and cost estimate for a post-construction 



survey. The post-construction survey would have demonstrated any 



effects of barge fleeting on the mussel beds over five years. JWe "\ 



believed funding for the post-construction surveys could 



T" n 



