Recent Rains Improve River Traffic

Recent rain in the Midwest has helped improve the flow of the Mississippi River.  Lou Dell’Orco, Chief of Operations for the Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District, said “The water levels changed drastically in the last week or two. They’re up around 10 on the St. Louis gage, and it was a significant jump because we were at about minus two.”

Dell’Orco says the Mississippi River has persistently been in low water conditions for about three years, so the rise is a welcome sight, even though it has brought some flooding issues. “With the debris that gets sucked into the river, we’ve actually had to suspend our dredging operations for about a week.”

According to Dell’Orco, it’s unclear how long river levels can stay at this level, but despite a dry year, they’ve been able to maintain a nine-foot deep and 300-foot-wide channel for barge traffic with cooperation between the river industry, the Coast Guard, and the Corps of Engineers.  He says dredging used to wrap up for the season around Christmas, but for the last few years, they’ve been able to continue dredging into late January or early February.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

From time-to-time we have reported on the water levels in the Mississippi River because it is a major transport artery for agricultural commodities and input supplies such as fertilizer. Low water levels make it very costly to move those products since it causes traffic to slow and load levels to be much lighter. That is why news of higher water levels is so welcome. Faster river transportation will help move grain to export destinations and processors in a more efficient and cost-effective way, which will help improve grain prices at shipping points all along the river. Farmers/ranchers will appreciate anything that helps improve their return on investment (ROI). In fact, CAD members have a huge opportunity to create ROI for them by using AgPack®. The collection of products and services offered by AgPack® can help farmers/ranchers save up to $40,000 in operating costs.