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Navigation affected by drought
The drought is lowering the level of the Lower Mississippi River to near record levels and is having an impact on barge traffic. Jim Pogue, Public Affairs Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Memphis District, says two operators are “light-loading” their barges.
“They can’t load as much cargo like grain and other commodities onto the barges because they don’t want them to draw as much water,” Pogue tells Brownfield Ag News, “As a result, that tends to drive up costs because they still have, basically, the same fuel costs pushing the same barges but carrying less cargo when they do that.”
The Corps is mandated to provide a minimum 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide navigation channel on the Lower Mississippi. Dredging is also going on to maintain that and Pogue says permanent river “training structures” are in place to help speed the river’s flow through certain areas.
Record low water occurred during the 1988 drought when the Mississippi River fell to MINUS 10-point-seven feet on the Memphis gauge. It is now MINUS 7-point-two. The extended weather forecast predicts continued drought conditions which could cause the river to be down 9-point-six feet by August 22nd.
Pogue tells Brownfield the Corps is working with the U.S. Coast Guard, the navigation industry and keeping farmers and grain elevators apprised of river levels.
“We’re doing what we can to make sure that the harvest that they do get, gets out and they’re able to keep their costs down as much as possible,” he adds.
The situation is the complete opposite of last year when the Mississippi River was flooding. It is already well over 50 feet lower than the highest reading during last year’s spring floods.
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