Down Under the River

by Steve Schnarr
Missouri American Water, the privately owned water company that serves several communities along the Missouri River including the St. Louis metro area, Jefferson City, MO, Parkville, MO and St. Joseph, MO, held tours of their latest Jefferson City area project on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011.

The project is a new water intake system fed by the Missouri River. This winter, crews from engineering firm Layne Christenson have been digging a 200 + foot tunnel under the Missouri River. The tunnel connects with vertical intake pipes inserted into the bed of the Missouri River last fall. When completed, 2 t-shaped intakes will rest just a few feet above the Missouri River bed, feeding pipes laid through the tunnel. These new intakes will increase water capacity for the Jefferson City plant and increase reliability in times of low water.

The intakes are covered with a screen that will trap sediment and debris on the intakes. When these screens become clogged, an air jet will be used to flush sediment from the intakes.

I had the unique opportunity to tour the tunnel, serving as extra film crew for the Rivermiles PBS documentary series. Jodi Pfefferkorn and Scott Mansker, the hosts of the series which will begin running this spring, are doing a show that documents how to turn Missouri River water into tap water. After years of floating on the surface of the river and swimming in it, it was pretty cool to be able to go underneath it. The tunnel is cut through solid limestone bedrock below the groundwater table. The rock is literally flowing with water which is constantly pumped out of the tunnel. I wish I had photos to share, but I was too busy with the video camera to get stills!

The tunnel is located about 20 feet below the bottom of the river, and extends about 80 feet beyond the shoreline. After the intakes are completed, the tunnel will be filled in, so this really was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Several local reporters were invited to tour the tunnel, still in progress. Here is a story reported by KOMU-Channel 8 in Columbia, MO.

Originally broadcast on KOMU-TV, Columbia, MO on Feb. 16, 2011
Here's the link: http://bit.ly/fD2NJb 

Here's the story as reported by KRCG-13's Mark Slavit:
http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=582481