Why Does the Repaired Len Small Levee, Alexander County, Illinois, US Continue to Breach during Major Flooding Events?

Abstract

One only needs to study the soil and geologic history and location of the ancient Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to understand why Len Small levee if patched will continue to fail. Much of Dogtooth Bend located in Alexander County, Illinois was originally in the ancient Ohio River valley (Figure 1) alluvial sediments north and east of the confluence with the ancient Mississippi River. The ancient Ohio River valley soils underlain by alluvial sediments and have been easily eroded by the re-aligning modern Mississippi River which now travels through the bedrock controlled Thebes Gap (Figure 2) and into the Ancient Ohio river valley. The primary objectives of this paper are: 1) to explain why Len Small levee, Alexander County, Illinois, US will continue to breach during major flooding events if repaired and 2) to develop a new combined raised causeway and levee system which will provide a Mississippi River floodwater bypass, be sustainable, encourage and fund a land use change, restore the degraded highway road beds, protect remaining Dogtooth Bend farmsteads and farmland that have not yet been degraded by past flooding events and provide floodwater storage during major flooding events at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.