Mississippi River Traffic Moving Again

Barge traffic resumed along an 11-mile (17.7 kilometer) stretch of the drought-ravaged Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi, but dozens of vessels waited their turn on Thursday to pass in the shrunken waterway.

The Mississippi River, the country's primary highway for barge traffic, has dropped as much as 14 feet in the drought that has also withered crops in the Midwest and triggered wildfires in the West.

The latest incident occurred around dawn on Wednesday, just hours after the Coast Guard opened the channel near Greenville. Seventeen of the roughly 100 ships stuck since Monday made it through before one became lodged in the sand, forcing authorities to close the channel again for roughly 12 hours.

Traffic resumed late Wednesday afternoon with southbound vessels going through first, then northbound. After all those boats get through, the Coast Guard will continue directing river traffic on a staggered schedule, Gomez said.

As of Thursday morning, some 50 vessels remained backed up in the channel, waiting for their turn to pass.

Barge operators typically haul some $180 billion in goods annually, and the Mississippi River is their main artery with some 566 million tons (513.5 million tonnes) of freight going up and down the inland waterway each year, according to the American Waterways Operators, a national trade association representing tugboats, tow boats and barges.

The drought's effect on the river has caused logistical and financial woes for the barge industry.

Barges must unload 17 tons (15 tonnes) of cargo for every one-inch loss of water and 204 tons (185 tonnes) for every one-foot (30.5 centimeter) loss of draft, said Tom Allegretti, president of the trade association.

Draft is the vertical distance between the ship's waterline and the lowest point of its keel.

Allegretti said it would take 130 semi trucks or 570 rail cars to haul the freight unloaded by one large barge on the Mississippi River under those conditions.

OPERATORS LOSING MONEY

Barge operators are losing an estimated $10,000 per day for every one of their boats that sits idle near Greenville, said Ann McCulloch, spokeswoman for the American Waterways Operators said.

With 97 vessels idle on Monday and Tuesday, and 105 vessels idle on Wednesday, according to Gomez, that's nearly $3 million in lost revenues in three days.

"It's a day-to-day situation now to manage the stoppage," McCulloch said.

If water levels drop further, prices could rise on the raw commodities commonly shipped by boat, including coal, grain, petroleum and steel.

Taxpayers also share some of the drought's financial burden. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dredged the river almost nonstop since the start of the drought with equipment costing as much as $85,000 per day, Corps spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale said.

Dredging removes the silt that falls to the bottom of the river - a problem that accelerates as water levels drop. The Corps must keep the channels at least nine feet deep and 300 feet wide for safe passage of vessels.

Conditions were expected to improve in the short-term near Greenville, where the Coast Guard projects the river will rise about one foot by Monday.

But it forecasts a one foot decrease by Monday in Memphis, which has had its own headaches this summer. On August 9, the American Queen steamboat - a multilevel passenger vessel carrying some 300 pleasure passengers - got stuck near Memphis.

The river there could hit 10 feet below baseline by Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. That is nearing the historic low set in 1988 when river traffic came to a halt and an estimated $1 billion in revenue was lost.

Reuters - Colleen Jenkins, Greg McCune and Vicki Allen

Drought Hits Mighty Mississippi

As if high temperatures, wildfires, and dried up crops weren't enough, the drought plaguing the US is now crippling the nation's largest river.

The Mississippi River is one of the nation's main arteries of commerce. More than 500 tons of grain, coal, and other goods pass along its banks every year. With water levels on the Mississippi so low, barges are having trouble getting through creating delays in shipping crucial goods can costing hundreds of millions a day.

The drought of 2012 is shrinking the river. In some places, it's been reduced to half its size. The Army Corp of Engineers is struggling to keep water levels at nine feet, the legal level to keep the Mississippi open for traffic. River levels haven't been this low since the late 1980s, and they're getting dangerously close to breaking the all-time low record.

In one stretch of the Mississippi, several barges got stuck. The situation prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to close an 11-mile section of the river, stranding 97 boats and barges. Dredge operators are hard at work trying to make the water deep enough for the barges to pass through. Barges carrying lighter loads to help navigate the shallow waters. But the less they carry, the more consumers pay. More than 400,000 jobs depend on the flow of traffic in the Mississippi River.

If the Mississippi is forced to close, it will cost the U.S. economy $300 million a day and food prices will soar. Corn and soybean prices are at record highs. The price of corn is up 68 percent from June and soybean prices are up 39 percent.

Mississippi River: 11 Miles Shut Down

Nearly 100 boats and barges were waiting for passage on Monday along an 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that has been closed due to low water levels. 

The stretch of of river near Greenville has been open only intermittently a vessel ran aground on August 11th. The area is being surveyed for dredging and a Coast Guard boat is replacing eight navigation markers. There at least 40 northbound vessels and nearly 60 southbound vessels stranded, waiting for passage as of Monday.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging to keep a lane 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide open.

It's not immediately clear when the river will re-open. A stretch of river near Greenville was also closed in 1988 due to low water levels caused by severe drought. The river hit a record low on the Memphis gauge that year. 

The Mississippi River from Illinois to Louisiana has seen water levels plummet due to drought conditions in the past three months. Near Memphis, the river level was more than 12 feet lower than normal for this time of year.

With thousands of tons of materials shipped on the river each day, maintaining the navigation channel is essential to keeping vessels from colliding or running aground.