The Coeur d’Alene Basin Commission has identified several river, floodplain, and water quality objectives to alleviate 100 years of mining impacts to the lower Coeur d’Alene River.  These objectives include: riverbank and channel stabilization, fisheries and wildlife habitat enhancement, water quality improvements, and mitigation of sediment and erosion impacts. 

In 2001, TerraGraphics worked with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to develop plans to stabilize both banks along 3,000 feet of the river.  Designs included bank sloping, contaminated soil wedge removal, rock placement, and revegetation.  Passive treatment permeable barriers with apatite (fish bones) were installed behind 300 feet of riverbank and are monitored for groundwater and river water quality improvements.

In 2004, TerraGraphics assisted the Basin Commission in developing permit and environmental documents, design plans and specifications, bid package, and a monitoring program for another project to stabilize both riverbanks for approximately 2,000 feet immediately downstream of the 2001 project.  TerraGraphics coordinated many diverse interests from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish and Game, Washington Department of Ecology, Idaho Department of Lands, and the Army Corps of Engineers in the design and permitting of this project.  Several innovative bank designs were incorporated into a large-scale stabilization and habitat project, including wake breaks created from brush to provide habitat and minimize wave action on the failing banks.  Construction of the project was completed in 2005. 

TerraGraphics also developed a monitoring plan to assess the effectiveness of the projects.  A physical monitoring plan is currently in place to evaluate changes in the river morphology due to bank stabilization.  Parameters include cross-sections, bathymetry, bank pins, bank profiles, photo points and digital video.  Monitoring has utilized a survey grade GPS and an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) to measure changes in the bottom of the 50-foot-deep river.