Transportation Nation- Drought-felled Mississippi River puts barge traffic in jeopardyRockford Register Star - 6 hours agoST. LOUIS — The Mississippi River level is dropping again and barge industry trade groups warned Thursday that river commerce could ...
- New York Times - by John Schwartz - 4 days ago
- Mississippi Press (blog) - 6 days ago
Drought-felled Mississippi River puts barge traffic in jeopardy
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A worker cleans off the top as barge is loaded Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, on the East St. Louis riverfront as seen from St. Louis. Months of drought have depleted the Mississippi River, causing barge industry trade groups to warn that river commerce could essentially come to a halt as early as next week in an area south of St. Louis.
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ST. LOUIS — The Mississippi River level is dropping again and barge industry trade groups warned Thursday that river commerce could essentially come to a halt as early as next week in an area south of St. Louis.
Mike Petersen of the Army Corps of Engineers said ice on the northern Mississippi River is reducing the flow more than expected at the middle part of the river that is at a low-water point unseen in decades, the result of months of drought.
The river level is expected to get to 3 feet at the Thebes, Ill., gauge on Jan. 6, a juncture that could force new limitations. Worse still, the long-range forecast from the National Weather Service calls for the river to keep falling, reaching 2 feet on Jan. 23.
The Coast Guard remains confident that the nation’s largest waterway will remain open. But even if the river is open, further limits on barges will bring commercial traffic to a halt, officials with two trade groups — the American Waterways Operators and Waterways Council Inc. — said in a joint news release.
Thebes, about 150 miles south of St. Louis, is a treacherous spot for barge operators because of hazardous rock formations and a big bend in the river. The corps is in the process of removing the rocks but work isn’t expected to be finished until mid- to late-January at the earliest.
The trade groups renewed their call for presidential action requiring the Corps of Engineers to increase the flow of water from an upper Missouri River dam in South Dakota. The corps cut the flow by two-thirds in November because of drought conditions in that region, reducing the amount of Missouri River water flowing into the Mississippi.
Without the additional flow “we will have run out of time on this national crisis,” said Michael Toohey, president and CEO of Waterways Council.
The depth of the Mississippi is regulated by dams north of St. Louis, and the depth increases south of Cairo, Ill., where the Ohio River converges. But the 180-mile stretch from St. Louis to Cairo is approaching record lows. Experts say that if barges stop moving, the potential impact on shipments of essentials such as corn, grain, coal and petroleum could reach into the billions of dollars.
Drafts, or the portion of each barge that is submerged, are limited to 9 feet in the middle Mississippi. If the river gauge gets to 3 feet at Thebes, the Coast Guard may be forced to limit drafts even further. Restricted drafts mean less cargo per barge. Officials with the trade group say that if drafts are restricted to 8 feet or lower, many operators will halt shipping.
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Drought-felled Mississippi River puts barge traffic in jeopardy
The part of the Mississippi River than is north of the Ohio River is in trouble. We have 100% drought in the following states: Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma. 100% of all the acres in all these states are in a drought and this has been going on now for months. We have lost corn crops, soybeans and have lost a lot of crops out here in these states.
All of the last information is from Chad Meyers on CNN News Friday December 28th 2012.
This kind of drought like I have said before in other articles will tend to precipitate food shortages worldwide which also tend to create food panics among the poor who cannot afford the increasing prices caused by supply and demand. Then this travels up the food chain over a couple of years to where the rich start making bad decisions too. This is just what I have observed since the Australian severe drought in 2006 where farmers were committing suicide a lot there because things got so bad. So, we just witnessed this same kind of thing in Australia which helped create the panics of 2007 and 2008 among the rich worldwide. And we all know what happened ever since.
This is an even potentially worse problem for the world than Australia in 2006 because the U.S. tends to be the most efficient grower of food as a nation on earth. With all these states (because of ongoing drought) not capable of being the breadbasket for the U.S. and the world it only exacerbates the potential problems regarding food and finances for the whole world for the next few years.
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