After Drought, Reducing Water Flow Could Hurt Mississippi River
Transport
New York Times
26 November 2012
By John Schwartz
The drought of 2012 has already caused restrictions on barge
traffic up and down the Mississippi River. But things are about to
get a lot worse.
As part of an annual process, the Army Corps of Engineers has
begun reducing the amount of water flowing from the upper Missouri
River into the Mississippi, all but ensuring that the economically
vital river traffic will be squeezed even further. If water levels
fall low enough, the transport of $7 billion in agricultural
products, chemicals, coal and petroleum products in December and
January alone could be stalled altogether.
“Without the river, we’re in a world of hurt,” said Kathy Mathers,
a spokeswoman for the Fertilizer Institute. About half of the
spring fertilizer that the industry sells to Midwestern farmers
travels upriver, she said, and options to get the fertilizer to
the fields by other means are few. “We know the rail cars aren’t
there,” she said. The corps reduces water flow from the upper
Missouri every year as part of its master plan for maintaining
irrigation systems and meeting other water needs of the region,
which stretches from Montana to St. Louis. This year the process
began on Nov. 11, as the corps began reducing water flows from the
Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, S.D. The flow has already been
reduced from 37,500 cubic feet per second to 26,500, and will
reach 12,000 by Dec. 11.
The plan, approved by Congress, has the power of law. “We do not
have the legal authority to operate the Missouri River solely for
the benefits of the Mississippi River,” said Monique Farmer, a
spokeswoman for the corps.
Michael Toohey, the chief executive of the Waterways Council, a
group that lobbies on behalf of inland carriers, operators and
ports, said that argument rings hollow. “The corps could do it,”
he said. “They have the authority to do it. They don’t have the
will to do it.”
Water levels on the Mississippi near St. Louis are approaching
record lows — and whether or not the Coast Guard actually closes
down navigation, the effect on shipping will be the same, said
Martin Hettel, a senior manager at the American Electric Power
River Operations. “Economics will shut the river down,” he said.
Carriers have so far responded to low water by loading barges with
less cargo so that they will ride higher in the water, reducing
their own efficiency. But as the river level continues to drop,
Mr. Hettel said, “you can load the barges lighter, but if you
don’t have a light-draft towboat you can’t move them.”
The effects, he predicted, will not be felt by businesses alone.
“When the cost of shipping raw materials goes up, the consumer
ends up paying for that,” he said.
Maj. Gen. John W. Peabody, the commander of the Mississippi Valley
division of the corps, said at a Nov. 16 news conference in St.
Louis that the corps has been actively dredging the river and has
released smaller amounts of water from other reservoirs, but has
to think about long-term response to the drought. “Some people
compare this to a battle,” he said, but “I compare it to a
campaign — this is not something we can solve in a few days, or a
few weeks, or even if a few months if we have a persistent enough
drought.” He added, “We’re going to have to husband our resources
for when the situation gets truly dire — and in my personal
estimate, we are not there yet.”
The reservoirs along the upper Missouri are already 20 percent
below the levels that normally get the region through the coming
year’s drought season and that allow commercial navigation on the
Missouri between April and November, said Charles Shadie, chief of
the watershed division for the Mississippi Valley division; “they
are already concerned that they may not have a full navigation
season on the Missouri next year.”
The corps is also taking on a blasting project, which will allow
traffic to proceed despite the low water levels. The project will
eliminate rock formations known as pinnacles in Southern Illinois
at Thebes and Grand Tower, but the work is not projected to begin
until February. Fifteen senators and 62 House members have asked
for the government to speed up the process.
Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who was the principal author
of the Senate letter, said that disrupting traffic along the
Mississippi, “has the potential to impact the entire economy along
the river — everything from increasing the cost to move goods to
potential job losses.”
He called for President Obama to issue an emergency declaration to
increase water flow from the Missouri and to get rid of the
pinnacles quickly.
“The only person that’s going to be able help us is the person who
lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Mr. Hettel said. “Unless we
get rain.”
At the St. Louis news conference, General Peabody jokingly
recommended an appeal to an even higher authority. “If anybody
knows how to create rain upriver of where we are today, I
encourage you to leverage the impact that you have,” he said.