Pumping System Brings Back Midwest Wetlands

"A 'state-of-the-art' pump station along the banks of the swirling Mississippi will now allow state conservation biologists to draw water from that river and pump it to one of seven new wetland pools at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area."

"Two submersible pumps have been operating for a few months, and the newly created wetlands have drawn large flocks of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds."

"Development of a 9-foot-deep navigation channel from St. Louis to Sioux City, Iowa, began in the early 1900s and contributed to the loss of more than 300,000 acres of wetlands, flood plain forests, sandbars and other wildlife habitat in Missouri, Hoskins said."