MANKATO — Crews are still cleaning up the mess left behind in Mankato parks nearly a month after the Minnesota River in the city hit its 10th highest level on record.

The flood waters covered about 90 percent of both Land of Memories Park and Kiwanis Recreation Area. The water has receded, but it left behind huge tracts of silt.

The Land of Memories Park, which sits across the Blue Earth River from Sibley Park, has been reopened except for the campground, where crews still have to replace electrical posts that provide power to 17 campsites. The cleanup cost about $178,000, according to city documents.

All structures and play areas had to be scrubbed clean or pressure-washed, Mankato Parks Superintendent Mark McQuillan said.

“You don’t know what’s in that river (when it’s flooding). It’s pretty nasty,” he said. “It could be raw sewage.”

Some campsites are still covered with silt and will need to have their turf re-established.

The silt was especially bad at Kiwanis, particularly on a paved trail popular with bikers and hikers because of its scenic river views. The silt was chest-high in some places, McQuillan said.

Workers used a skid loader and heavier equipment to shovel silt off the trail and level the grade. Afterward the trail was swept and sprayed clean to keep bikers safe.

A river trail in Sibley Park required similar cleanup, at a cost of $24,000. All trails there have been reopened.

The flooding also washed away new trails that had been freshly created to reduce conflicts between dogs and mountain bikers. A new wood-chip trail had just been added for dog owners, and a local mountain-biking club had relocated some trails further away from the dog trails.

Most of the wood chips floated away, but park officials plan to replace them, McQuillan said. City crews will also assist the mountain-biking club in repairing the new bike trails.