The Mississippi River near Red Wing is the part of the river passing through Red Wing, MN, downstream from Lock and Dam No. 3 and just upstream from Lake Pepin. It is part of the USACE's 9-Foot Channel Navigation Project and is located in navigation Pool 4. This section of the river has several side channels and backwater lakes.The Mississippi River is one of the world's largest rivers, flowing over 2,300 miles through the center of the United States. It begins at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and ends at the Gulf of Mexico, where pollutants carried by the river contribute to the Gulf's Dead Zone. Millions of people rely on the Mississippi River as a source of drinking water, and the river is also an important waterway for shipment of commodities. The Mississippi River watershed is the 4th largest in the world at about 1.2 million square miles. The section of the watershed in and upstream of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area has a mix of several types of land including forests, wetlands, agriculture, and developed areas.