Morgantown Dominion Post
30 August 2006
Associated Press
VICKSBURG, Miss. — With every few inches the Mississippi River drops this summer, Billy Joe Ragland and thousands of farmers just like him lose money.
The drought that is causing the Mississippi to dwindle started in the spring of 2005 and hasn't loosened its grip yet.
It's bad enough that the dry conditions are hurting his yields of soy-beans, corn and cotton. But now low water is beginning to affect the fragile transportation system relied upon by farmers and factories in America's heartland.
And there isn't much chance anything will change for months. Little rain is in the forecast and little hope is in Ragland's heart.
"This is going to be the year that puts a lot more of us out of business," said Ragland, a Bentonia, Miss., farmer who serves on the Mississippi Farm Bureau board of directors. "I hope it's not going to be me, but I can see right now it's not going to be good in the end."
Low water on America's largest river has already caused a reduction in the size and draft depths of the giant barge flotillas that carry more than 310 million tons of grain, petroleum, steel, ore and Ragland's soy-beans and corn along the Mississippi every year.
Last week, the Coast Guard said parts of the river were closed temporarily due to a series of towboat groundings.
And hydrologists at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center expect the marine highway to continue to drop rapidly. There is no significant rain in the forecast and extreme drought conditions are expected to worsen in the basins of most of the Mississippi's mammoth northern tributaries.
One forecast, a 28-day, worst-case scenario based on the unlikely idea that no rain will fall in the basin, calls for the lower Mississippi to drop 2 to 3 feet in most areas. While the river is not at historic lows, it is 8 to 10 feet below normal in most areas. Scientists and forecasters warned that with another month or two of similar conditions, the Mississippi could start to bottom out.
It would take weeks of substantial showers to reverse the trend. Even heavy-water storms lasting a day or two would have little impact on river levels.
Drought-stricken vegetation and soils quickly absorb any moisture, leaving little to make the journey down the watershed.
"The long-range impacts on river flow, especially the Mississippi River, will be virtually nil," Louisiana state climatologist Barry Keim said of occasional showers in the basin. "If it's problematic now, it's not likely to get any better. In fact, it's more likely to get worse."
In times of low water, the draft — or depth to which a barge sinks in the water when it is loaded — must be reduced. Ideally, barges would sit at a depth of 12 feet.
But the Lower Mississippi River Committee, the industry group that regulates traffic in times of high and low water, has limited draft depth to 9 or 9 1/2 feet along most sections of the river. Some ports are requiring draft levels of 8 feet.
And because the main channel of the Mississippi narrows in times of low water, the committee also decreased the width of floats by one string of barges.