New river lab opens near Muscatine

Ground will be broken today in eastern Iowa’s Muscatine County on what’s billed to become the most comprehensive river research station in the world. The Mississippi Riverside Environmental Research Station will be located east of Muscatine, near Fairport.V-C Patel is director of the University of Iowa’s internationally recognized Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research says the research station will be used to study subjects including: flooding, sedimentation, fish, aquatic plants, water quality and the impact of industrialization. Patel says the location for this new one-point-two million-dollar research facility was chosen very carefully.It is -near- the Mississippi but not so close as to be at risk of being flooded out. Patel says it’s impossible to simulate something as huge, powerful and unpredictable as the Mississippi River in a laboratory, so they’re taking the laboratory to the river.The groundbreaking is slated for 3:30 p-m. Construction will begin next week. The building should be complete by November with research getting into full swing next spring. The three acres of land where it’ll be built was donated to the U-of-I by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The D-N-R operates a fish hatchery next door.