Search for Kankakee River mussels begins

KANKAKEE – Finding muscles along the main boating area of the Kankakee River is normally not a problem.

Shirtless young men are most often not difficult to find.

However, the search for an entirely different kind of muscle – this one known as mussels, the kind which live under the flowing river water – are now being pursued.

The search for the endangered mussels is being headed by GZA GeoEnvironmental, a Norwood, Maine-based company which operates an office in Oak Brook.

The city awarded GZA a $106,450 contract several months ago.

The city’s $5,004,315 riverwalk development at the southeast section of East River Street and South Schuyler Avenue waits for this Illinois Department of Natural Resources – and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services –supervised project to be completed.

The company said there are seven divers deployed for the mussels search and the process will take an anticipated eight days of relocation, but the goal is to finish it sooner.

Beth Hollinden, a GZA malacologist (scientists who specialize in the study of mollusks, a diverse group of invertebrates including snails, clams, squids and octopuses), noted that by mid afternoon Tuesday some mussels had been found.

The targeted area stretches from the river area under the South Schuyler bridge and then approximately 350 feet east toward the South Indiana Avenue area. The search stretches from the north shoreline out about 20 feet into the river.

The crew will be on site 10-12 hours a day.

The mussels cannot be disturbed until river water reaches a level of 55 degrees. The water has just now reached this temperature.

There are two endangered mussel species in this area of the Kankakee River, the monkeyface mussel and the spike mussel.

The monkeyface mussel is described as a green to light-brown surface with zigzag markings. It grows to about 4 inches in length and lives in the gravel or mixed sands and gravel of riverbeds.

The spike mussel, also known as a lady finger, is well known in Midwest waterways. The greenish brown or black-shelled mussel, normally about 4 inches in length, is common in Missouri and Ohio, but endangered in Illinois.

As for where the endangered mussels will be relocated, the DNR is not required to release this information, due to poaching concerns.

Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis is hopeful the mussels relocation project can be finished sooner rather than later. He said critical construction time is flowing past the site faster than river water.

“This is prime construction season. We have great weather. I don’t want us to miss these days,” he said. “We’ve been working since last fall to see these mussels relocated.”

Curtis is also working on a second issue concerning river life. There is the issue of spawning Red River Horse fish. He said city leadership is working with state leadership to see if any potential delay regarding this aquatic life can be avoided.

The East Riverwalk is the first major component of the planned four-mile stretch of the Kankakee Riverwalk which stretches along the Kankakee River from the Frank Lloyd Wright museum property northwest to Riverside Medical Center site.

The riverwalk project was born in the early days of the then-Mayor Chasity Wells-Armstrong administration. Curtis picked up the project when he defeated Wells-Armstrong in the 2021 mayoral campaign.