Effects of Sediment Release from Water Injection Dredging on Downstream Freshwater Ecology in Kansas | W81EWF 22 SOI 0033

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 22 SOI 0033

This grant opportunity, titled "Effects of Sediment Release from Water Injection Dredging on Downstream Freshwater Ecology in Kansas," is focused on understanding what happens to downstream river ecosystems when sediment trapped behind dams is intentionally mobilized and released as part of reservoir sediment management. The core problem it addresses is that dams disrupt the natural movement of sediment through river basins. Over time, sediment accumulates in reservoirs, reducing storage capacity and affecting key purposes like water supply, flood risk management, and navigation. In Kansas, this has already become a measurable issue: by 2012, sedimentation-related storage loss across 20 large federal reservoirs ranged from about 2% to as high as 43%, highlighting how serious long-term capacity decline can become. At the same time, the lack of sediment downstream can reshape river habitat in harmful ways, including channel incision, altered bedforms, reduced floodplain connectivity, and unusually clear water that does not match historical conditions.

The specific driver for this funding is a pilot project at Tuttle Creek Lake in Kansas being led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Kansas City District. The project will test Water Injection Dredging (WID), a technique that uses jets of water to loosen and lift sediment from the reservoir bottom so it becomes suspended in a dense, sediment-laden flow (a density current) that can move toward the dam outlets. Whether and how far that density current travels depends on factors like particle settling velocity, bed slope and roughness, how sediment density compares to the surrounding water, and how much water the system injects through the jets. The long-term management idea is straightforward: if sediment can be moved to the outlet and passed downstream, the reservoir could regain some storage volume and potentially extend its useful life. What is not straightforward, and what this grant is meant to resolve, is how that released sediment affects downstream freshwater ecology and water quality.

A central reason this opportunity is notable is that the Tuttle Creek Lake effort is described as the first time Water Injection Dredging has been conducted in a reservoir anywhere in the world. Because of that, USACE is not only interested in whether the dredging method works technically inside the reservoir, but also in generating credible environmental evidence about downstream impacts. The agency plans to collect environmental data both within the reservoir and downstream, and the resulting dataset is intended to support future feasibility studies at Tuttle Creek Lake while also helping validate empirical or numerical models that might be used to evaluate WID at other reservoirs in the future.

The cooperative agreement is seeking a research partner with strong expertise in freshwater ecology and related disciplines, particularly people who can design monitoring programs and interpret ecological responses to changes in sediment regime. The solicitation specifically points to fields like freshwater ecology, aquatic biology, water quality, and behavioral ecology, along with other closely related specialties. The work is framed around building an experimental design that can detect change and attribute it, as much as possible, to sediment releases associated with WID operations rather than to background variability.

The anticipated work has four main components. First, the selected researcher would develop a monitoring protocol and an experimental design suited to studying aquatic organism communities and environmental parameters likely to shift when sediment loads change. Second, the researcher would conduct monitoring in affected river basins, specifically including the Big Blue River and the Kansas River, with sampling occurring before, during, and after WID operational releases so that baseline conditions and post-release recovery or persistence can be evaluated. Third, the project would analyze the collected data using statistical approaches and modeling, with the goal of quantifying ecological responses and linking them to sediment and water-quality dynamics. Fourth, the findings would be documented and shared through peer-reviewed publications and professional presentations, ensuring the work contributes to broader scientific and management understanding rather than remaining only as internal project documentation.

Administratively, this is a discretionary opportunity from the Department of Defense, specifically the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and it will be awarded as a cooperative agreement, meaning the work is expected to be collaborative with USACE-ERDC researchers rather than fully independent. The funding opportunity number is W81EWF 22 SOI 0033, the CFDA number listed is 12.630, and the announcement was created on June 23, 2022, with an original closing date of August 18, 2022. The expected number of awards is one, with an award ceiling of $77,000. Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others," with additional clarification referenced in the full eligibility text field, implying this may be open to certain non-federal entities that meet the program requirements.

Overall, the grant is essentially looking for a well-designed, field-based ecological study tied to a novel sediment-management pilot, with an emphasis on rigorous before-during-after monitoring and clear, publishable conclusions about how reservoir sediment releases influence downstream biodiversity, habitat quality, and water quality in Kansas river systems.

• The Department of Defense, Engineer Research and Development Center in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Effects of Sediment Release from Water Injection Dredging on Downstream Freshwater Ecology in Kansas" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 23, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 18, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $77,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for W81EWF 22 SOI 0033

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