The future of two Mississippi dams may be in question.
Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) will begin a feasibility study assessing the future of the Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and the Lock and Dam 1 (also known as the Ford Dam) next year.
Congress closed the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock to boats in 2015. That year, all three locks in the area stopped serving commercial barge traffic. The Lower Lock and Dam is primarily used as a hydroelectric generator and a mechanism for regional flood control. (Clara Ann Bagnoli)
FMR is a Twin Cities based nonprofit that aims to protect the river and its watershed.
The dams are commercially obsolete. They opened in 1956 and 1963 with the intention of expanding commercial navigation access on the Mississippi. They closed in 2015 due to declining barge traffic and concerns on the spread of invasive species, like Asian Carp.
As of January 2026, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which owns and operates the dams, officially completed its Disposition Study of the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam.
The final plan recommends complete revocation and full disposal of the federal property, with the intention of transferring the site entirely out of federal ownership.
The disposition study is one of three that the USACE is executing. The other two focus on the Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and Lock and Dam No. 1 (also referred to as the Ford Dam), which is 5.5 miles farther downstream. The same outcome, which is yet to be released, is predicted for the remaining two studies.
According to FMR’s website, their feasibility study aims to fill the gap from the initial disposition study. It will attempt to answer questions such as: Where would new islands, rapids and shorelines arise in an undammed river? How might rare species like Paddlefish and some mussels benefit? And how much sediment is built up behind the existing structures, and can it be safely released downstream?
These questions reflect FMR’s commitment to tribal nations’ involvement in the process, considering the sacred nature of St. Anthony Falls to the Dakota people. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, a Dakota-led nonprofit, worked with FMR to introduce the study to the four tribal nations that border Minnesota. Additionally, FMR hosted site visits for tribal councils.
The USACE is “mostly looking at what was cost effective for the Army Corps budget, which doesn’t really take into account the full range of community values andgoals that we have when we think about structures in the river,” Colleen O’Connor Toberman, the Land Use & Planning program director at FMR, said. “The level of detail that they’ll put behind that cost estimate for dam removal is going to be too limited to be fully informative.”
Economic impact
The FMR study is meant to complement a recently published economic report done by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). According to a press release from the NPCA, the report includes case studies from cities with comparable urban characteristics that have invested in river recreation to understand possible economic benefits of dam removal.
Their data demonstrates that strategic investment in river restoration yields substantial local returns for cities, generating as much as $34 million annually in visitor spending.
“Fifty years out, we’ll see a lot bigger return on a removal scenario than just letting this sit here and be mothballed and continue to interrupt this incredible ecosystem that we have right here in the Twin Cities, including our national park, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area … we’re lucky to have it right in our backyard,” Christine Goepfert, Midwest Policy Director for the NPCA, said. Cities that underwent dam removals have reportedly attracted new riverfront investments, experienced increases in visitation at new river-related parks and saw increases in native fish.
Using historical data from the 1880 surveys of the river done by the USACE prior to the dams being built, the NPCA predicts that after removal the river will be shallower with “lake-like pools” between what used to be the locks, Goepfert explained.
The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, a research laboratory based at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, is working on sediment modeling to get an updated prediction the future of the riverbed.
Neither the NPCA nor the FMR hold a position on if the dam should be removed. “This is really a vision document to help give us a sense of what we could expect to see when we created these potential zones of opportunity. It’s a window into the future, not a planning document,” Goepfert said.
The report has been shared with the offices of Congresswomen
Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum as well as the offices of Minneapolis City Council and Ramsey and Hennepin county commissioners.
Before the building of the lock and dams in the 1880s, the Mississippi River looked different. Between St. Anthony Falls and Bdóte, where the Minnesota River enters the Mississippi, were rocky rapids, gravel bars, shallow areas, drop-offs and floodplains. (Clara Ann Bagnoli)
Potential outcomes
The Corps’ study will have one of three outcomes: The lock and dam remains owned and operated by the Corps, the lock and dam are removed or the lock and dam changes ownership.
A potential new owner of the dam would be a private energy company, which would take over the hydropower production aspect of St. Anthony Falls.
“I’m worried,” O’Connor Toberman said, “about a scenario where all or even parts of the structures get transferred to private owners prematurely before this question of dam removal is fully studied. FMR doesn’t have a position on whether or not dam removal makes sense. We want to study that and find the answers along with everyone else.”
In addition to the study, FMR is advocating for two complementary outcomes for the future of the Upper Lock and Dam, which they refer to as a “partial disposition.” The first is that the USACE continues to own and maintain the lock, sustaining its essential functions such as managing floods and ensuring a reliable drinking water supply for one million Twin Cities residents. The second is for land around the lock, which the USACE no longer needs, to be transferred to the city of Minneapolis to create public access.
Owámniyomni Okhódayapi’s partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board is an effort to transform five acres near the Upper Lock into a place of “healing, restoration, education, and connection,” as stated on Owámniyomni Okhódayapi’s website.
O’Connor Toberman said, “We want that same value of appreciating and bringing prominence to the Dakota significance of this place, both past and present.” These locks and dams are in the middle of the Mississippi River Gorge, which is bookended by several sites of sacredness or great significance to the Dakota people, and we want Dakota tribal nations to have as much voice in this process as they want to have, as they choose to have.”
Changes could be upstream
In 2026, state legislators approved an Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund grant of $923,000 to help fund this study. FMR received this money on July 1. Additionally, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization has contributed funds towards the project.
FMR’s partners in this process include the NPCA, American Rivers, Dr. Roopali Phadke at Macalester College, and Dr. Bruce Braun and the St. Anthony Falls Lab at the University of Minnesota.
An independent engineering firm will be chosen to lead the project by the end of 2026.