http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/11/30/possible-mississippi-river-shutdown-threatens-thousands-of-jobs/
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - It’s an issue that has plagued states along the Mississippi River for months and has now landed squarely on the desk of President Obama: how to prevent the imminent shutdown of commercial traffic along the nation’s largest waterway.
A nationwide drought, the worst to hit the U.S. in decades, has lowered water levels along the river, threatening barge traffic.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Thursday that the President raised the issue with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, directing his administration to take “every step to mitigate” the situation. Carney added that there are a number of “complex” legal and technical steps which can be pursued, saying the Army Corps of Engineers has taken “proactive” measures.
The biggest obstacle is jagged rocks jutting up from the bottom of the Mississippi which make it impossible for barges to move.
“The Corps needs to get in there and literally blow them up to get them out of the way or we will be either extremely limited or completely shut down some time between December 15 and December 30,” Senior Vice President of Regional Advocacy for the American Waterways Operators Lynn Muench said. “If we do lose the river between mid-December and January, the jobs that are at risk in Missouri are almost 3,000 jobs.”
Muench said she’s reached out to President Obama and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, mirroring an effort Thursday by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.
“If commercial navigation is significantly impaired or eliminated because of navigation hazards, there will be catastrophic consequences to the economy of the nation’s heartland, including Missouri, which will reverberate throughout the country,” Koster wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama.
Koster warned that a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce flows from the dams on the upper Missouri River will worsen the problem.
When asked if her union had received any response from federal officials on the matter, Muench said “not yet.”
“The bottom line is, I think most of the congressional members in the Mississippi River states in both the Senate and the House understand how critical this is,” she said. “We’ve received no positive response yet from the administration.”
A new report shows the drought has worsened for a second straight week. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows that 62.7 percent of the continental U.S. was in some form of drought as of Tuesday.
“We’re not seeing anything in the near term, in terms of beneficial, widespread rainfall in this area or immediately upstream on the river, that would indicate that would be of help,” National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Fuchs said, adding that ”the shorter days and the cooler nights” are lessening the effects of the drought.
http://beforeitsnews.com/environment/2012/11/mississippi-river-impassable-in-two-weeks-2455364.html
Mississippi River Impassable In two Weeks
Thursday, November 29, 2012 8:17
According to the American Waterways Operators and Waterways Council, the country’s busiest inland waterway is nearly too low already for barges loaded with coal, steel and other commerce.And it is expected to dry up considerably in the next couple of week due to the summer drought and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s move to hold back water from the Missouri River.
“Of particular concern are hazardous rock formations near Thebes and Grand Tower which threaten navigation when water levels drop to anticipated, near historic lows,” the agencies said in a joint release. “The rock formations, combined with the reduced flows from the Missouri River, will prohibit the transport of essential goods along this critical point in the river, effectively stopping barge transportation on the middle Mississippi River around Dec. 10.”
U.S Coast Guard Lt. Colin Fogarty said the river is about two feet below normal water levels. He expects it to threaten the all-time low of 6.2 feet below normal in December. The previous low water mark was set in 1940.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a controversial move, last week started to reduce to flow of water from the Missouri River into the Mississippi to make sure areas to the north have adequate water. “Congress and the Administration need to understand the immediate severity of this situation,” American Waterways Operators President and CEO Tom Allegrett said. “The Mississippi River is an economic superhighway that efficiently carries hundreds of millions of tons of essential goods for domestic use as well as national export.
The economic impact will be felt by residents and cities up and down the mississippi river. Those poor folks in Louisiana just have to deal with one thing right after another. No wonder they want to secede and get out of the union.
and yes , the drought has NOT gone away......
Tenacious U.S. Drought Worsens, To Last Through Winter
The tenacious U.S. drought that continues to hamper American agricultural output and put water supplies and Mississippi River commerce at risk worsened during the past week, particularly in the Southeast, according to figures released on Thursday. The new U.S. Drought Monitor shows that all categories of drought increased across the country between Nov. 20-27, with the largest increase occurring in an area from Alabama northeastward to Virginia.
The U.S. Drought Monitor released on Nov. 29.Credit: National Drought Mitigation Center.
This has already been the most intense and widespread drought to strike the U.S. since 1988, and its severity is on par with the droughts of the 1950s. The drought has also earned comparisons to the devastating droughts of the 1930s "Dust Bowl" era, although those droughts were more intense and longer-lasting than this event, and the impacts this time have been reduced by improved land management practices.
The drought may rival Hurricane Sandy as the most costly U.S. natural disaster of 2012, with damage estimates already ranging between $75 billion to $150 billion. Deutsche Bank Securities has predicted that the drought will be responsible for a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in U.S. gross domestic product this year, a significant drop considering the relatively slow pace of growth throughout the year.
The Drought Monitor shows that about 63 percent of the Lower 48 states are experiencing some form of drought conditions. That is down only slightly from the peak drought coverage of 65 percent on Sept. 25. The portion of the Lower 48 states experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions jumped to 42 percent during the past week, up from about 38 percent on Nov. 20.
The Drought Monitor shows that a large area of moderate to exceptional drought continues to affect areas from the Central Rockies to the Northern and Southern Plains, as well as the Upper Midwest and Mid-Mississippi River Valley. The drought is worsening in Texas, which has suffered from drought conditions for at least two years, and in Georgia, where drought has also been long-lasting. Neither of these areas are expected to see significant drought alleviation during the winter, and in fact, Texas may see drought tighten its grip on the state, according to the Nov. 15 Seasonal Drought Outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
That outlook shows that while some improvement is likely to occur in California and the eastern edge of the drought area in the Ohio Valley, the vast majority of the drought area is likely to remain mired in unusually dry conditions through the end of February.
Statewide average precipitation in Wyoming for the January to October period, going back to 1880. Note how much below average 2012 has been so far (circled)Click to enlarge the image.
Credit: NOAA/NCDC.
The Northern Plains continue to be the hardest hit states, where Wyoming and Nebraska recorded their driest January-to-October period on record. Four other states ranked among their top 10 driest January-to-October periods on record, as well. In addition, some locations within these states may set all-time records for dryness during November, with little to no precipitation falling at all this month.
This particular drought, which began in 2011 and expanded dramatically starting in March of this year, likely was triggered by natural climate variability. In particular, the pattern of sea surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans during this period tends to favor North American droughts, according to climate researchers. However, the drought was likely intensified by global warming-related heat waves during the spring and summer, with more than 15,000 temperature records broken or tied during March 2012 alone. The warm temperatures helped further dry plants and soils.
The drought is affecting the agricultural sector, with 54 percent of the nation’s pasture and rangeland rated in poor to very poor condition as of Oct. 31, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA reported that several states in the West and Plains had 80 percent or more of their pasture and rangeland rated poor to very poor, with nearly all of Nebraska’s pasture and rangeland in the worst category. The winter wheat crop has been hampered by the continued dry conditions, with 65 percent of the winter wheat crop located drought areas. In South Dakota, 61 percent of the winter wheat crop was rated to be in poor to very poor condition.
The drought is also threatening commerce on the Mississippi River, as the Army Corps of Engineers is considering plans to deepen some parts of the River in order to keep barge traffic moving, despite a dramatic drop in water levels.
According to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek, computer models show that absent more rain, Mississippi River navigation would be limited starting on Dec. 11, and that the river could reach a record low shortly before Christmas. The story said that $7 billion in goods typically pass through the river during an average December and January.
In an illustration of the extreme weather that has affected the U.S. in recent years, it was only a little more than a year ago that Mississippi River commerce was disrupted by record flooding induced by a combination of heavy rainfall and massive snowmelt.
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