• INTRODUCTION
  • River Timeline
  • River Management
  • The River's Future
  • River Coalition
• MISSION/GOALS
• MINUTES/AGENDA
• EDUCATION
  • Library
• LINKS
• WORKING GROUPS
  • Information
  • Submit a Rain Garden

The River's Future

Healthy bodies of water are esstential to great cities. Los Angeles, San Antonio, Kansas City, and Boston are a few places that have restored their rivers, and along with them, their cities. What to do with the River des Peres is a difficult question to answer.

Restoration of the River des Peres is possible, but the realities of financial constraints may be limiting. Complete restoration would require removing concrete and riprap, constructing separated sewers, and possibly even returning to natural flooding events.

A more modest proposal involves removing non-native vegetation from along the River's banks and planting native trees; creating wetlands in the uplands to slow down stormwater and cleanse it before it enters the River; and re-introducing meanders and opening up the channel to the light of day whenever possible, so that the more natural segments of the River become more visible and accessible. Additional street sweeping would reduce the load of pollutants, like cadmium, from entering the river with stormwater runoff.

Some work has already begun. The River des Peres Beautification Alliance has planted hundreds of trees along the River's banks and MSD has earmarked money for a beautification study. MSD is also working to eliminate combined sewers, which combine sanitary and stormwater runoff. The Forest Park stretch of the River has been returned to the surface. A new nature center at the mouth of the River des Peres has been proposed. The Green Center in University City has formed the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and has received a federal EPA grant to improve water quality on the Southwest branch tributary of the River, which receives runoff from commercial and residential development in the area near Ruth Park Woods and the Ruth Park golf course.