Mississippi River mayors remorseful over end of cruise company

by: Joe Millitzer

Posted: Feb 26, 2024 / 01:52 PM CST

Updated: Feb 27, 2024 / 03:32 PM CST

ST. LOUIS — The American Queen Voyages ships will no longer be cruising on the Mississippi River. The parent company announced last week that it had filed for bankruptcy, citing the pandemic and changes in the way people travel. They are offering refunds to anyone who may still have a ticket.

The American Queen is among the seven massive ships in the company’s fleet. It is considered the largest steamboat ever built, with a capacity of over 430 passengers.

There will still be cruises on the mighty Mississippi. Viking and American Cruise Lines have several options to take the “big muddy” from Minnesota to New Orleans.

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The Mayors of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative say that these ships and the tourists they bring account for over 40 percent of some river town’s economies. They only see demand increasing.

“We see an overall river cruising industry with significant opportunities and growth potential into the rest of this decade and beyond. In some of our cities, the burgeoning river cruise industry and all the third-party services it supports can account for over 40% of that city’s economy and we only see demand increasing. In that light, we anticipate the absence of AQV will create openings for remaining cruise companies to absorb. Alternately, acquisition of assets and reorganization of AQV also remain as possibilities.
 
We are aware AQV’s stoppage leaves some communities with unfulfilled commitments and we will work as an organization to help our cities address those challenges.”

The outdoor recreation and tourism industry is a major economic force on the Mississippi, generating over $37.4 billion annually and supporting more than 517,000 jobs, making it the river’s second largest economy.

The river cruise sector, in particular, holds a significant portion of the US river cruising market, with a forecasted compound annual growth rate of 20.8% from 2023 to 2030.

The mayors say that post-pandemic recovery has been strong, with domestic river cruise bookings in 2022 increasing by 25% from 2019, making up 68.2% of the national market.

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Nature & history: Five sites that showcase importance of Mississippi River

By Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jan 7, 2024

When you picture America's national parks and historic places, you might be thinking of the impressive Teton mountain range, the rock formations of Bryce Canyon or the geysers at Yellowstone.

But you can make your way through several sites of national importance just by following one of the nation's great rivers: the Mississippi.

Here, we've rounded up National Park Service sites and other federally protected places along the river. Visitors can hike, camp and fish in some, taking in the sweeping beauty of the river valley. Others offer a chance to get educated on the history of the Indigenous communities who lived near the river and, further south, a hard look at America's history of slavery.

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The Mississippi River watershed.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

What national parks, monuments and other spots are on the Mississippi River?

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10 key facts about the mighty Mississippi

The Mississippi River flows through 2,350 miles of America's heartland to the Gulf of Mexico. It provides habitat for hundreds of fish and wildlife species, charts the course of millions of tons of goods exported from the U.S. and has a rich cultural history, featured in many beloved books and songs.

It's facing big environmental challenges: nitrate and phosphorus pollution, forest loss, invasive species and prolonged and excessive flooding, to name a few. But it could also provide nature-based solutions to some of those problems, as scientists, politicians and citizens learn more about what can be done to protect it.

Here are 10 things to know about the iconic river that forms the nation’s largest watershed, spanning 31 states from Minnesota to Louisiana and Montana to Pennsylvania.

Where does the Mississippi River start and finish?

The Mississippi River begins as a small, knee-deep river flowing out of Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota. At just 18 feet wide, it's easy to walk across.

It flows hundreds of miles across Minnesota, including through the Twin Cities, before it reaches the Wisconsin border. Then it heads south, running alongside major cities like St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans.

The river ends about 100 miles downstream from New Orleans, where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It takes 90 days for a single drop of water to travel from the headwaters to the Gulf.

What are the Mississippi River tributaries?

Some of the biggest tributaries that flow into the Mississippi include the Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas and Red rivers.

How big is the Mississippi River basin?

The Mississippi River basin drains more than 40% of the continental U.S. In other words, any drop of rain or snow that falls across a large part of the country ends up in the Mississippi. It includes 31 states — some fully and some partially — and two Canadian provinces.

Because water travels over so much land before it reaches the Mississippi River, land use is an important determinant of the river's health. Industry and agriculture have both played a role in polluting the river, resulting in what's known as the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico — a massive area where nutrient pollution chokes off oxygen for fish and plants.

Is the Mississippi River the longest river in the United States?

No. The Mississippi River flows about 2,350 miles, according to the National Park Service. The Missouri River flows about 100 miles longer, making it America's longest river.

The Missouri River stretches from the Rocky Mountains in southwest Montana to St. Louis, where it meets the Mississippi.

Both rivers' lengths can change slightly as their deltas grow or shrink from sedimentation or erosion. The Mississippi River delta in particular has lost approximately 70% of its land area since 1932 due to coastal erosion, sea level rise and human activities like oil and gas extraction.

Is it one of the longest rivers in the world?

Most lists of the world's longest rivers combine the Missouri and the Mississippi, since they join up. By that measure, the river is the fourth-longest in the world, behind the Nile, the Amazon and the Yangtze rivers.

By volume, the Mississippi River is the 15th-largest in the world. It discharges close to 600,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Park Service.

Where is the Mississippi River deepest?

The river's deepest point is near Algiers Point in New Orleans, measuring about 200 feet deep. That's a far cry from its depth at the headwaters, which is about 18 inches, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Do people drink from the Mississippi River?

Yes. The river provides drinking water for almost 20 million people in more than 50 municipalities, according to the environmental advocacy group American Rivers.

Is the Mississippi River drying out?

The Mississippi River is a major player in worldwide shipping and commerce. It carries around 500 million short tons per year of goods, including corn, soy, fertilizer, road salt, coal and petroleum products.

More than 90% of the nation's agricultural exports are grown in the Mississippi River basin; 60% of all grain exported from the U.S. is shipped on the river.

Periods of drought or flooding — which are expected to get more frequent as the climate changes — can stall shipping on the river. For example, near-record low water levels caused by drought caused barges to run aground on the lower Mississippi in fall 2022.

Is the Mississippi River important for wildlife?

The river ecosystem is vital for a wide variety of birds, fish and other animals. Each year, it provides a place to rest, breed and eat for more than 325 species of migrating birds. The upper Mississippi alone is home to over 119 species of fish, and its surrounding backwaters, wetlands and forests provide habitat for a multitude of other animals as well.

These important habitats are threatened by climate change and human activities. For example, prolonged and frequent flooding on the upper Mississippi caused by more precipitation and land use changes in the basin is killing floodplain forests and disturbing habitat for fish.

How did the Mississippi River get its name?

"Mississippi" comes from the French interpretation of the Ojibwe name for the river. That name was Misi-Ziibi, which means "great river."

The river is known by a variety of nicknames too, such as the Father of Waters.

— Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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In Minnesota, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is a 72-mile park full of opportunities for hiking, kayaking, bird-watching and learning about the river. According to its website, it's also home to the steepest descent of the river — more than 110 feet — through a narrow gorge.

Although it's not a National Park Service site, the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is not to be missed. The refuge stretches more than 260 river miles from Wabasha, Minnesota to Rock Island, Illinois, protecting more than 240,000 acres of river floodplain. During the right seasons, you can hunt, fish, hike, bird-watch and more.

Effigy Mounds National Monument, near Harpers Ferry, Iowa, is a sacred space for the Indigenous peoples who lived in the Mississippi River valley. More than 200 mounds are in the park, formed thousands of years ago by people of the Late Woodland period in the shapes of bears, birds and other animals. By taking the Fire Point loop on foot, visitors can see more than 25 mounds — including two effigy mounds, Little Bear and Great Bear — as well as expansive views of the river.

In St. Louis, Gateway Arch National Park is an iconic feature along the Mississippi River. The 630-foot stainless steel arch, which was completed in 1965, is built to withstand earthquakes and high winds. You can ride a tram to the top, which provides wide-ranging views of the river and the city.

In Natchez, Mississippi, Natchez National Historical Park is a place of hard truths about America's history of slavery. The wealth and charm of the river city "was built on a horrific international system of human trafficking of people of African descent," Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond wrote in a column. In 2021, the park marked the acknowledgment of Forks of the Road, once one of the largest places where people were sold into slavery across the south.

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Roads in the Driftless Area wind through the region's signature hills, which were beginning to show signs of fall colors.

Chelsey Lewis/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Could the Midwest get a national park on the Mississippi River?

There have been efforts to establish a national park in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, but they've faltered.

This past year, a proposal to create a Driftless National Park and Preserve in southeastern Minnesota was pulled after residents raised concerns about private land being made public and too many visitors harming the landscape, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reported in June.

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In a Facebook post announcing the idea was being rescinded, the author of the proposal wrote, "The core tenets of this idea of mine were efforts for the conservation of the Driftless ecosystem — an incredibly rich environment unlike anywhere else — and the preservation of this landscape for future generations."

In Alton, AltonWorks — a company that aims to revitalize the city's downtown — has proposed the creation of Great Rivers National Park, which would stretch 144 miles of riverfront.

A tug with several barges makes its way through Lock and Dam 16 on the Mississippi River near Muscatine, Iowa. Aerial support provided by LightHawk.

Nick Rohlman/Cedar Rapids Gazette

How locks and dams work

Get on a boat on the upper Mississippi River, and you'll eventually come upon a looming concrete structure stretching across the river's main channel.

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It's called a lock and dam, and it's a distinct feature of the upper river. The construction of locks and dams, a major feat of engineering that occurred largely during the Great Depression, has transformed how the Mississippi River runs.

What are these locks and dams for? How do they work, who controls them, and what changes have they made to the river ecosystem?

Here's what you should know.

The tug Theresa L. Wood heads upstream after locking through Lock and Dam 8.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Why are there locks and dams on the Mississippi River? How do they work?

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Prior to the installment of the locks and dams, the upper Mississippi River was free-flowing, regularly cutting new paths — and sometimes it was so shallow that people could wade across it. The locks and dams were put in place so that boats hauling freight up and down the upper river could have easier passage.

In 1930, Congress approved a project that would ultimately create the current system: The upper river is divided into sections called pools, where a fixed amount of river is held back by a dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls how much water is in a pool at a given time. Each pool must be at least nine feet deep to allow towboats hauling barges to move through.

The construction of the locks and dams provided work for thousands of people along the upper river during the Great Depression. River towns grew in population as temporary workers moved in. An oral history project from the 1980s notes that in Genoa, Wisconsin, near Lock and Dam 8, "Business boomed, particularly taverns," and "Anyone having a room in a home had no trouble renting it."

Between the headwaters in northern Minnesota and St. Louis, the river falls about 420 feet in elevation. When a boat enters a lock, the lock acts like an elevator, bringing the boat up or down to the water level of the next pool. You can also picture it like a staircase of water that boats and barges climb and descend.

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Gearing installed in the mid-1930s that controls a roller gate is shown at a Mississippi River lock and dam.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Do the locks and dams control flooding on the river?

The locks and dams don't provide flood control. Downstream from Wisconsin, there are levees meant to constrain the river away from communities and high-production farmland.

The tug Theresa L. Wood heads upstream after locking through Lock and Dam 8.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

How many locks and dams are there?

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There are 29 locks and dams on the upper river.

The first lock and dam structure, at Upper St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, has been closed to barge traffic since 2015. The Army Corps is considering the removal of the next two structures, Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and Lock and Dam 1, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, to return the river to its free-flowing past in the Twin Cities.

The southernmost lock and dam is near Granite City in Illinois, north of St. Louis.

Who operates them?

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The Army Corps operates the locks and dams.

Why doesn't the lower Mississippi have locks and dams?

The lower river, which stretches south from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, does not have locks and dams. As major rivers like the Missouri and the Ohio join up with the Mississippi, the channel becomes deep and wide enough to naturally accommodate shipping.

Are the locks and dams in good condition?

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When the locks and dams were constructed, mostly between 1930 and 1940, engineers estimated their lifespan to be about 50 years.

The Army Corps makes routine repairs to the structures, many of which still have original parts that are now around 90 years old. This winter, for example, they'll drain the water out of Lock and Dam 2 near Hastings, Minnesota, to make repairs to its concrete. But the Corps reports that there's an estimated billion-dollar maintenance backlog — and officials acknowledge that making fixes here and there may not be enough.

"At some point, we're going to need some major rehabilitation of these structures," Kristin Moe, navigation business line manager for the Army Corps' St. Paul District, told the Journal Sentinel earlier this year.

Groups that represent the shipping industry contend that instead of making repairs to existing locks, the Army Corps should be constructing new ones that have a 1,200-foot chamber to more efficiently accommodate larger groups of barges than the current chambers, which are 600 feet long.

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Bird-watchers gaze at tundra swans and other waterfowl on the Mississippi River from an overlook.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

How have the locks and dams affected the river ecosystem?

Converting the free-flowing river into a series of pools has changed its natural habitats and processes. Because the dams caused more water to fill into the floodplain permanently, forest cover decreased and became fragmented, according to a 2022 study on the ecological status of the upper Mississippi.

Islands have shrunk or disappeared, attributed to wind and wave erosion across the pools, and backwater areas off of the main channel have filled in with sediment, making them less hospitable to fish. Consistent high water levels have made it more difficult for some types of aquatic vegetation to survive.

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In the decades since the locks and dams were constructed, the Army Corps has completed projects to try to address some of these consequences and revitalize habitat for fish and wildlife, including building new islands and dredging backwaters to restore their depth.

A pair of tundra swans fly above other waterfowl and swans on the Mississippi River.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

How much trash does the river funnel

The Mississippi River drains more than 40% of the continental U.S. – just how much trash does it take along with it?

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That's what a group of researchers and environmental advocates wanted to find out when they began a litter analysis of a handful of cities along the river a few years ago. This fall, they released what they're calling the "first-ever snapshot of the state of plastic pollution along the Mississippi River."

Between 2021 and 2022, volunteers from St. Paul, Minnesota; the Quad Cities area in Iowa and Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Greenville and Rosedale, Mississippi; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; logged trash they found into the University of Georgia's Debris Tracker app. The study came on the heels of a 2018 commitment from mayors along the river to reduce plastic and trash.

Although many people might think oceanside cities bear the responsibility to keep plastic and trash out of the water, the Mississippi River can act as a funnel for that trash from the heart of the country to the Gulf of Mexico.

The study was also meant to raise people's awareness of the river's role in keeping other waters clean, said Jennifer Wendt, plastic waste reduction campaign manager for the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative — the mayors' group that worked on the study.

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For example, a piece of litter that someone tosses on the ground in Missouri could theoretically make its way through storm drains, to tributaries, to the Mississippi, to the Gulf and then to the ocean.

"It may not look like a plastic beverage bottle by the time it gets to the ocean, but it's still there," Wendt said.

Here's what to know about the study results, what's next for reducing plastic and trash along the river and how you can keep plastic out of important waterways.

Fog rises from the Mississippi River. Aerial support provided by LightHawk.

Nick Rohlman/Cedar Rapids Gazette

What was the top trash found in the Mississippi River?

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About 80,000 litter items were logged during the study's data collection period.

Plastic was the top material found in and around the river, making up 75% of the total trash. Paper and lumber was next at 9%, followed by metal at 7%, glass at 5%, and personal protective equipment like masks at 2%.

The top 10 most commonly found items included:

  • 11,278 cigarette butts

  • 9,809 food wrappers

  • 6,723 beverage bottles

  • 5,747 foam fragments

  • 4,239 hard plastic fragments

  • 4,210 paper and cardboard items

  • 3,882 plastic bags

  • 3,640 aluminum or tin cans

  • 3,260 foam or plastic cups

  • 3,149 film fragments

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Other notable finds include 825 masks, 480 items of clothing and shoes and 291 pieces of fishing gear.

In an optional survey after logging the trash they found, participants were asked if they cleaned it up. Close to three-fourths said yes.

What do the results tell us about litter habits?

People may not know that cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, Wendt said. They can take up to 10 years to decompose. And cigarettes can also leach other toxic chemicals into the water, according to the report.

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Another intriguing finding was the amount of plastic beverage bottles and aluminum cans found, Wendt said — both of which are recyclable.

She noted that of the cities that took part in the study, only one of their states, Iowa, has a so-called "bottle bill," in which people pay a five-cent deposit when they purchase a beverage container and get a five-cent refund if they return the container to a store or redemption center. Bottles were lower down on the litter list in the Quad Cities than in other places.

Legislation like that "is not very popular politically," Wendt said, "but it does work."

Some states along the river prohibit local bans of plastic bags, she pointed out.

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What's next for keeping plastic out of the river?

River-wide data collection has wrapped up, but Wendt said the next step is carrying out city-specific projects to reduce plastic pollution.

Those include providing funds to underserved neighborhoods in St. Louis and Baton Rouge so they can pursue what they see as integral to reducing waste, like installing water-filling stations, or developing a curriculum for schools to teach about recycling.

The mayors' group will continue to work with the University of Georgia to do a comprehensive assessment of waste management in a few cities, Wendt said, and they're also planning to work with cities that don't have recycling programs to provide people a way to recycle.

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Wendt maintained that while recycling is part of the solution, it's not the only solution.

"(The discussion is) moving in the right direction, from 'Oh, we just need to clean up litter...' to, 'Oh, we actually need to reduce the source if we're going to have any real impact,'" she said.

What can people do to reduce plastic in waterways?

The biggest step people can take is to stop using plastic bags, Wendt said. That also goes for single-use plastic water bottles, she said, except for those who need to drink out of them because of water contamination.

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Beyond that, talk to local retailers and see if they'd be willing to ask customers if they want a bag instead of assuming they do, she said, and ask if restaurants could switch to sustainable materials for carryout containers and leftovers. Consumers can push retailers to make changes like this, she said, though she acknowledged it works best when people approach retailers as a group.

Nationally, Wendt said more attention is needed for the role the Mississippi River plays in carrying plastic and trash.

When she attends events about reducing plastic, representatives from coastal cities are often the only ones at the table.

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"There's this whole rest of the middle of the country that needs a little bit of focus," she said.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation

As climate risks increase, Mississippi River towns look to each other for solutions

St. Louis Public Radio | By Eric Schmid

Published December 21, 2023 at 11:32 AM CST

The River Des Peres in St. Louis, Missouri, flows out of its banks in south St. Louis on June 4, 2019. The concrete-lined drainage ditch is prone to flooding.

Climate change means communities along the Mississippi River are experiencing longer and higher floods in springtime, flash flooding from heavy rains, as well as prolonged droughts. Now cities along the river are turning to each other for solutions.

Cities and towns across the Mississippi River basin have always needed to weather the environmental disasters associated with living along a river.

The past few years have brought wild fluctuations between flooding and drought, bringing more stress to the communities nestled along the Mississippi’s 2,350 miles.

In the last five years alone, they’ve seen springtime flooding, flash flooding, significant drought and low river levels, with opposite ends of this spectrum sometimes occurring in the same calendar year.

“When these rivers have disasters, the disaster doesn’t stay in the river,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. “It damages a lot of businesses, homes, sidewalks and streets; even broadband conduit and all kinds of utilities, mains and water return systems.”

The cost of those damages can run into the millions, if not billions.

One potential solution Wellenkamp encourages the 105 individual communities in his organization to consider is to work with, rather than against, the river.

“Just about all of them have some sort of inlet into the Mississippi River that they’re built around,” he said. “Some of them are big and some of them are really small. But all of them need attention.”

It’s not a new idea, and many cities are already investing in nature-based solutions, such as removing pavement, building marshes, and making room for the river to flow. Now, St. Louis is looking to learn from Missouri’s neighbors in Dubuque, Iowa, on what the city can do with its River Des Peres.

‘It’s just an eyesore’

“It’s just an eyesore,” said Beatrice Chatfield, 15, who was walking along the River Des Peres pedestrian and bike greenway with her mom Jen. “There’s trash and debris and muck in it. It’s just all-around gross.”

It’s less of a river and more of a large concrete and stone-lined drainage channel that winds from the Mississippi through the urban landscape before disappearing beneath St. Louis’ largest park, Forest Park. It then reemerges further west in the suburb of University City.

Eric Schmid

/

St. Louis Public Radio

The River Des Peres in south St. Louis on Dec. 3, 2023. The drainage ditch fills up with water during heavy rains and prolonged flooding.

“It’s basically the small version of the LA River, which is just a cesspool,” said Sam Rein, 29. “During the summer it smells—we don’t exactly like living next to it, but it’s a neat feat of engineering that’s for sure.”

It can also be dangerous, Wellenkamp said.

“As the Mississippi River rises, the River Des Peres then begins to back up into people’s basements and yards and small businesses into the city,” he said.

Some 300 homes flooded in University City alone when the St. Louis region was hit with record breaking rainfall in July 2022. Wellenkamp argues St. Louis should look to other cities in the Mississippi River basin who’ve learned to work with water, instead of against it.

Dubuque’s hidden creek

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dubuque, Iowa, had a major flash flooding problem. Over the course of 12 years, the city of nearly 60,000 received six presidential disaster declarations for flooding and severe storms.

Whenever heavy rains drenched the city, the water would rush down the bluff and overwhelm the stormwater infrastructure, said Dubuque Mayor Brad Cavanagh.

Manhole covers erupted from the water pressure, turning streets into creeks and damaging thousands of properties.

“Somewhere along the line about 100 years ago, somebody buried a natural creek and turned it into a storm sewer and it wasn’t keeping up anymore,” Cavanagh said. “Many of the residents (in these neighborhoods) are low to moderate income and those least able to really recover from damage like this.”

Around 2001, the city started looking for solutions.

Dubuque faced a decision: expand the existing underground storm sewer or bring the Bee Branch Creek back into the daylight, expanding the floodplain and giving the water somewhere to go. The city opted for the latter option.

The city established a citizen advisory committee early on in the process, which played a central role determining the eventual design for the restored Bee Branch Creek.

City of Dubuque

An aerial photo of the Bee Branch Creek in Dubuque, Iowa on June 28, 2018. The creek is the result of a project to convert a buried storm sewer into a linear park.

Residents wanted more than concrete drainage ditch, Cavanagh said. They wanted trails, grasses and greenery that wildlife and people could both enjoy, and, importantly, access to the water, he added.

The Bee Branch Creek turned into a 20-year-long project that became much more than just an engineering solution for excess rain water, Cavanagh said.

“It is one of the most beautiful parks we have in the city, a place where people go and watch the ducks and the birds,” he said.

Most importantly, it solved the city’s flash flooding issues, said Deron Muehring, Dubuque’s water and resource recovery center director, who before that role was an engineer involved with the Bee Branch restoration from start to finish.

“2011 is the last presidential disaster declaration we had,” he said. “Now we haven’t had rains of that magnitude, but we have had significant rainstorms where we would have expected to have flooding and flood damage without these improvements.”

Learning from Dubuque

Other river cities see Dubuque’s success and want to know how they can apply it to their own flooding challenges, Cavanagh said.

“As mayor, I’ve talked about this project more than anything else,” he said. “People want to know: ‘How did you do it? Why did you do it? What worked and what didn’t?’”

Cavanagh covered those details during a presentation on the Bee Branch to St. Louis aldermen in December, who were looking for ways to apply those lessons on the River Des Peres.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer was inspired by the ideas.

“I could wish all day long that things like this had started sooner,” Schweitzer said. “But we’re here now and we have a responsibility. The length of time something will take always feels really long, but it takes longer if we don’t start.”

Time isn’t the only constraint, so is money. The Bee Branch in Dubuque had a price tag near $250 million. The city found a mixture of state and federal grant dollars totaling $163 million related to disaster resiliency, the environment, transportation and recreation and tourism, leaving the city covering around $87 million, Cavanagh said.

City of Dubuque

A child fishes in the Bee Branch Creek in Dubuque, Iowa, in 2017. The creek has become a place where people can interface and learn about watersheds.

Midwest Climate Collaborative Director, Heather Navarro, said floodplain restoration projects like Bee Branch are worth the investment.

“We have done a lot to pave over our floodplains and wetlands, but we know there’s a lot of inherent natural value in those,” she said. “Whether it is absorbing floodwaters, helping filter pollution, reducing soil erosion. When you start to add up those numbers, that really starts to change the economics. ”

She adds that when cities improve existing infrastructure like roads, bridges and wastewater management, they should consider how to use nature-based solutions and reduce flood and other climate risks.

“It’s not like we’re swapping out old infrastructure for new infrastructure,” Navarro said. For example, rain gardens can reduce pressure on wastewater drainage by absorbing excess water.

Trees can reduce heat. “We’re really taking a whole new approach to how this infrastructure is interrelated with other systems that we’re trying to provide for our community.”

And there’s billions of dollars on the table from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for communities to tackle projects that build resilience.

The path forward

As it stands, St. Louis is at the beginning of even considering what a project to bring more nature to the River Des Peres could even look like. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is also exploring projects, specifically in University City, that could help store rainwater during heavy rains.

The next major step would be a feasibility study of the entire River Des Peres watershed, which encompasses a handful of municipalities, Schweitzer said.

“There’s so many people who would need to be at the table to move something like this forward, which I don’t think is a bad thing,” she said.

Eric Schmid

/

St. Louis Public Radio

A thin layer of water lines the bottom of the River Des Peres near a storm sewer outlet and pedestrian bridge on Dec. 3 in south St. Louis. The river serves as a drainage channel for the city and frequently has debris and other trash in it.

Navarro said if cities like St. Louis want to use natural infrastructure to reduce their flood risk, there’s no better time than now.

“We know that climate change is impacting our communities,” she said. “We know that the way that we have been doing things in the past has in part contributed to where we are when it comes to the climate crisis.”

Wellenkamp agrees.

“Nature attracts business,” he said. “It stabilizes property value. It reduces crime. It creates resilience to disasters and extreme events. And it gives your place a better quality of life.”

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation. Sign up to republish stories like this one for free.

It's being distributed through Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. 

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India-led Global River Cities Alliance launched at COP28

The GRCA was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai on Sunday.

By: Express News Service
New Delhi | Updated: December 12, 2023 06:30 IST

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which implements the government’s flagship Namami Gange programme, has launched the Global River Cities Alliance (GRCA).

The GRCA was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai on Sunday.

In a statement, the NMCG said: “Expanding the reach of the River Cities Alliance formed by NMCG in association with NIUA with 142 Indian River cities as members, river cities of Den Haag, from the Netherlands, Adelaide from Australia, and Szolnok of Hungary joined the Global River Cities Alliance.”

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On December 6, the RCA had signed a Memorandum of Common Purpose (MoCP) with 124 member Mississippi River Towns and Cities Initiative of the US. “This is first of its kind alliance in the world,” the statement said.

“The launch of GRCA signifies a momentous step in global efforts towards river conservation and sustainable water management. Following this, partner countries are poised to coordinate post-COP activities, shaping the architecture of GRCA for effective implementation,” it said.

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NMCG Director General G Asok Kumar quoted PM Narendra Modi’s call for new river planning, stressing the need to mainstream rivers in urban planning without a regulatory mindset.

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Water levels on the Mississippi River are plummeting for the second year in a row

By Rachel Ramirez, Eric Zerkel and Brandon Miller, CNN Sep 21, 2023 Updated Sep 21, 2023

(CNN) — Water levels along the Mississippi River are plummeting for the second year in a row after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought across parts of the Central US.

The low water levels have made a unique rock formation in the Mississippi River, usually surrounded by water, accessible by foot, and the Army Corps of Engineers is increasing the size of a levee in Louisiana to prevent saltwater from surging into drinking water in New Orleans.

The drought comes as a critical harvest season approaches and farmers across the Midwest are concerned about water supply and barge deliveries. Officials and residents along the river worry about the widespread impacts another decline could bring.

Every water level gauge along a nearly 400-mile stretch of the Mississippi from the Ohio River to Jackson, Mississippi, is at or below the low-water threshold, according data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

The same stretch of the river experienced record-low water levels last year in October, which brought major impacts on farming communities and barge traffic during the critical harvest period, where staple Midwestern crops including soybeans, corn and wheat are transported down the river.

“We’ve been teetering on drought, extreme drought since last fall,” said Colin Wellenkamp, the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a network that includes mayors and experts along the Mississippi River.

“We get a little reprieve, and then it’s warm and dry,” Wellenkamp told CNN. “We really haven’t ever totally climbed out of the drought from last fall for the whole river yet.”

Exceptional drought – the worst category – has spread across parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. This year has so far been the hottest on record for Louisiana and Mississippi, according to recent figures from NOAA dating through August.

Extreme drought is present in several states across the Midwest, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, according to the US Drought Monitor.

“Those four states have really been significantly impacted by drought since last winter, it’s just ongoing,” Wellenkamp said.

Tower Rock accessible again – with a catch

A rock formation in the Mississippi River normally only reachable by boat is accessible by foot for the second year in a row due to the drought and low water levels, gauge data shows and officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation told CNN, but work on a pipeline is impeding road access to the formation.

Tower Rock juts out of the Mississippi River in Perry County, south of St. Louis and around 25 miles north of Cape Girardeau. When water levels drop below 1.5 feet at a nearby river gauge, enough of the underlying ground is exposed for people to walk to the formation.

Water levels at the gauge were near zero as of September 20, with no improvement forecast in the near term.

This rare occurrence happened last October amid another severe drought, causing tourists to flock to the site.

“Previous to last year, it was probably only accessible once or twice in the last decade,” Steve Schell, a natural history biologist at the Missouri Department of Conservation, told CNN.

Unfortunately for potential tourists, road access to the site is impeded by construction work on a pipeline, officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation told CNN. They urged people to schedule a visit at a later date, but said they were unaware when the work would be completed.

None of the officials CNN spoke to had been to the site since it became accessible by foot, both because of the lack of road access and because of low water levels which made it hard to access by boat.

“Part of the consequences of low water, is there are not a lot of places you can put a boat in on the river anymore,” Schell said. “All of those places are dry, and the only place they have right now is south of Cape Girardeau. Tower rock is, off the top of my head, 20 or 30 miles from the only available boat ramp.

Salty ocean water threatens drinking water

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion is growing in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.

Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for Plaquemines Parish in July as saltwater began to impact drinking water systems there, and the US Army Corps of Engineers built a 1,500-foot-wide underwater levee south of New Orleans to prevent it from pushing even farther north.

Last week, Plaquemines Parish President W. Keith Hinkley said at a news conference that clean water was being distributed to around 2,000 residents who were impacted by the saltwater intrusion. The Army Corps also announced plans at the same news conference to make the levee larger.

“Based off the current forecast, and if no action is taken, you could potentially see the saltwater wedge all the way up to the French Quarter,” Cullen Jones, commander of the Army Corps’ New Orleans District office, said at a news conference on Friday.

But as the Army Corps is building up the riverbed in Louisiana, it has been dredging other portions of the river to keep traffic flowing – albeit at a slower pace than normal. The treacherously low river has been impeding hundreds of barges and vessels from passing through — and it is also causing the cost of transporting some of the harvest to soar.

“They have to light load barges in order to get them to float, so it’s more trips,” Wellenkamp said. “And so you’re not putting as much product into one barge. The barge will move on, and it’s gotta go back again — all of this eats up a lot of fuel and eats up a lot of time.”

There are also signs that drought and low water levels get worse in the Upper Midwest as El Nino strengthens in the Pacific Ocean, said Jonathan T. Overpeck, dean of the school for environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan. But this year’s conditions were not caused by the natural climate phenomenon, he said.

“This is heat that has already been trapped in the system due to climate change,” Overpeck told CNN.

Unless officials invest in efficient climate adaptation projects to protect communities, he said, it will be an increasingly challenging problem as the planet warms.

“These conditions will only become more frequent, if we don’t phase out fossil fuels,” Overpeck said. “It’s cooking the planet and we’re seeing the impacts unfold in the Mississippi River right now.”

The-CNN-Wire

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La Crosse Mayor Reynolds gets leadership post on group of Mississippi Valley mayors

Published September 15, 2023 By Brad Williams

La Crosse may get a little more clout on matters related to the Mississippi River valley, by being part of a group of river communities that just had a meeting in Minnesota.

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative held its annual meeting this week in Bemidji, and La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds was selected as a co-chair of the organization to help improve cities and towns along the big river.

“La Crosse is one of the first members of that group that, over the last 12 years, has gained significantly in influence on the national stage,” Reynolds told the La Crosse city council on Thursday.

Reynolds was also listed as a “featured mayor” at the group’s meeting.

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds represents the city in a coalition of Mississippi Valley mayors that met this week

He added the group includes 104 mayors from cities in all 10 states along the Mississippi, from northern Minnesota south to New Orleans.

Reynolds said his aim is to represent the city of La Crosse, “not only with this organization, but also on the national stage and with the eye towards not only improving the Mississippi River corridor, but helping our city as well.”

The mayors’ conference included reports on issues such as plastic pollution in and along the Mississippi.

Farmer shares concern over low Miss. River levels

By Walter Murphy

Published: Sep. 26, 2023 at 10:02 PM GMT-5

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - As the Mississippi River crawls towards a record low, farmers are already feeling the impact.

On Tuesday, the Mississippi River registered less than five inches from the record low set last October. Experts have sounded the alarm, saying things could get worse before it’s all said and done.

“It’s not as bad as it was last year, but it’s about to get in the same category,” said Dannie Daughhetee, who grows soybeans across the river from Memphis in Arkansas.

The river level Tuesday afternoon was sitting at 10.2 inches below sea level, which is not far from the -10.81 record set on October 18, 2022.

According to the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI), that year cost the U.S. GDP $20 billion, and it only took 40 days to do that. 

“It’s only the start of this year’s dry season,” Daughhetee said. “But barges can’t be more than half full or they’ll get stuck.”

Daughhetee said that’s got the basis of their profit twice as low as last season.

“Last year, the basis was about -50 cents, but right now, they’re negative a dollar,” he said.

A cost deficit that will be hitting Americans with higher prices once the products hit store shelves.

But Tuesday, the mayors of MRCTI proposed consideration of the following drought resilience policies to the Federal Drought Resilience Partners:

  1. Award federal disaster declarations to states and localities for drought;

  2. Allow cities to spend FEMA funds addressing drought impacts;

  3. Make drought mitigation a spending priority for Jobs Act grants;

  4. Develop national incentives for manufacturers to build out water recycling;

  5. Allow for more adaptive multi-watershed management so river systems can be managed at basin scale to mitigate for climate impact;

  6. Allow farmers and land owners to be compensated for voluntarily rotating acreage out of irrigation to alleviate drought;

  7. Make agricultural credits for climate mitigation available under TITLE II, Subtitle C of the Inflation Reduction Act applicable to drought resilience activities.

It’s too soon to tell which policies will make the final cut, or how they could impact American consumers at the cash register, but Daughhetee said it’s a good first start to mitigate the impact of climate change.

“I’m glad to see what the federal government will be doing to help make this something we can keep pressing forward from,” Daughhetee said. “Any bit helps.”

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Mayors of Mississippi River Cities Propose Ways to Deal with Drought

Mayors of Mississippi River Cities Propose Ways to Deal with Drought

WVIK, Quad Cities NPR | By Michelle O'Neill

Published November 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM CDT

National Drought Mitigation Center

/

Https://Droughtmonitor.Unl.Edu/

Latest U.S. map from the National Drought Mitigation Center

Large parts of the Midwest are in a moderate to extreme drought, and the economy is suffering because of it.

This week, the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative held a virtual meeting to discuss the wide-ranging effects of very dry conditions and low water levels. It also proposed a long list of policies and actions to respond to it.

Paul Rohde, from the Waterways Council, says even though locks and dams maintain water levels on the Upper Mississippi River, farmers, grain elevators, and other agri-businesses are directly affected by the drought.
And low water levels on the Mississippi are impacting agriculture, manufacturing, the global supply chain, and tourism.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Stacy Kinder says just a few weeks ago, the city had a big water main break. It affected homes and businesses all over the city and lasted several days. The very dry ground caused the land around the water main to move, causing the break.

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative wants the federal National Drought Resilience Partnership to considering immediate implementation of this list of actions (quoted from MRCTI press release):

  1. Award federal disaster declarations to states for drought;

  2. Allow cities to spend FEMA funds addressing drought impacts;

  3. Make drought mitigation a spending priority for Jobs Act grants;

  4. Develop national incentives for manufacturers to build-out water recycling;

  5. Allow for more adaptive multi-watershed management so river systems can be managed at basin scale to mitigate for climate impact;

  6. Allow farmers and land owners to be compensates for voluntarily rotating acreage out of irrigation to alleviate drought;

  7. Make agricultural credits for climate mitigation available under TITLE II, Subtitle C of the Inflation Reduction Act available for drought resilience activities.

The mayors who belong to the initiative say they take drought even more seriously than flooding. That's because the impacts usually last longer, affect more of the economy, and create conditions that result in more damage from future storms.

TagsWVIK Top Stories droughtMississippi River Cities and Towns InitiativeMRCTIMississippi RiverAgricultureTransportationshippingNavigation

Michelle O'Neill

Officially, Michelle's title is WVIK News Editor which really just means she wears many hats, doing everything there is to do in the newsroom and around the radio station. She's a multimedia journalist and serves as Assignment Editor, reporter, radio news producer, copy editor, announcer, news anchor/host, and photographer. She also writes and produces content for WVIK.org and social media and trains interns.

See stories by Michelle O'Neill

Keeping the Mississippi River Flowing

Keeping the Mississippi River Flowing

Mississippi River Mayors Call for Federal Drought Aid Over Low River Conditions

11/2/2022 | 8:40 AM CDT

By Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor

Connect with Chris:

@ChrisClaytonDTN


OMAHA (DTN) -- With drought choking commerce on the Mississippi River, a group of mayors along the river is proposing a list of policy recommendations, including paying farmers for voluntarily rotating acreage out of irrigation during droughts.

Jim Strickland, mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, and co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, said Tuesday on a call with reporters that in 35 years he had never seen the river so low. "We have all these tools at our disposal for flood, but very few for droughts," Strickland said.

Barge traffic is moving on the river, but it continues to become more restricted. On Sunday, a barge was grounded near Greenville, Mississippi, backing up 80 vessels and roughly 1,000 other barges as a result. At that point in the river, barge traffic is constricted to one-way movement right now, said Lt. Phillip VanderWeit of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Barges are limited in weight and to moving in nine feet of draft and five barges wide. Southbound traffic Tuesday had 30 vessels with about 500 barges waiting in the queue near Greenville along with 50 boats and another 500 barges waiting to move northbound as well, VanderWeit said.

"It has definitely created navigational hazards," VanderWeit said.

Paul Rohde, vice president of the Waterways Council, said barges in some cases have had to reduce their average load volumes by as much as 50%. Every foot of draft lost because of low water reduces a barge load by as much as 75,000 bushels of grain.

About 60% of all U.S. agricultural exports move down the Mississippi River. As DTN has reported, the low river levels have caused some river terminals to stop taking corn and soybeans. Farmers who can deliver to the river are seeing significant basis costs as well. Overall, the river moves entirely too much tonnage to be loaded on rail or trucks, Rohde said.

"Farmers and American agriculture are the ones who will be most impacted by this," Rohde said.

"It's really important that we continue to keep this river operational," he said. Talking about prolonged drought conditions, Rohde added, "Depending on the duration, this could be an unprecedented disruption of the inland river supply chain."

USDA is now licensing some emergency temporary storage in the region for farmers as well.

Stacy Kinder, mayor of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, said if the water levels get any lower at her city's port the conveyers will not be able to reach barges to load them.

The Mississippi River mayors on Tuesday outlined several recommendations for federal officials, including allowing disaster declarations for drought and providing cities access to FEMA funds for drought impacts.

The mayors also called for "more adaptive multi-watershed management so river systems can be managed at basin scale to mitigate for climate impact."

That recommendation comes as the Army Corps of Engineers prepares to reduce water flows from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota starting Nov. 19. Gavins Point had been averaging about 30,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), but the Corps is starting to dial back releases from the South Dakota dam and will bring it down to the minimum level of 12,000 cfs.

Rohde said that move by the Corps will lower the confluence at the Missouri River and Mississippi River by as much as 2 1/2 feet in about a month. Farther south on the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois, it will cut back the water level as much as a foot.

Corps officials on the Missouri River told DTN last week they are not authorized to release water to support navigation on the Mississippi River. Rohde noted "Congress could fix it" by invoking the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce.

"I don't know if they are talking about that at the Capitol, but that's certainly one option," Rohde said.

The mayors also pitched the idea of compensating farmers for voluntarily rotating acreage out of irrigation to alleviate drought. Another proposal would allow tapping USDA funds in the Inflation Reduction Act for drought resilience.

Right now, the La Nina pattern and forecasts for the upper Midwest are unclear on the chances of greater or lesser precipitation over the next few months that would raise the river levels on the lower Mississippi River.

"It's going to take several rainfalls to start resolving this," said Dennis Todey, director of USDA's Midwest Climate Hub.

Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative https://www.mrcti.org/…

Also see, "Grain Deliveries Halted at Some Mississippi River Elevators," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

"Mississippi River Not So Mighty Right Now," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.

Mayors call for federal assistance as Mississippi River reaches record lows WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio | By Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published November 2, 2022 at 4:11 PM CDT

Published November 2, 2022 at 4:11 PM CDT

  • The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate

Whistling ducks fly past the Carrollton Gauge on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. It's been about 12 years since it has been this low.

Mayors along the Mississippi River are asking for more federal help as the drought that has plagued the nation’s water superhighway in recent weeks drags on.

City leaders shared wide-ranging impacts of dry conditions at a Tuesday press conference hosted by the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, from barge slowdowns to water main breaks caused by shifting dry ground.

With relief from snowmelt across the upper U.S. still months away and future rainfall predictions tenuous, those tasked with keeping barges moving said they’re doing their best but could use more help the next time drought strikes.

“Low water can have as great a cost, or greater, than high water,” said Jim Strickland, mayor of Memphis, Tenn., where river levels reached a historic low at the end of October. “We have all these tools at our disposal for floods, but very few for droughts.”

The Mississippi River is a major thoroughfare for goods traveling across the U.S. and globally. The basin produces 92% of the nation’s agricultural exports and nearly 80% of the world’s exports in feed grains and soybeans. Nearly two-thirds of all grain exports from the U.S. are shipped on the river.

Stacy Kinder

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Mississippi River Cities And Towns Initiative

A sunken boat is exposed by low river levels at Cape Girardeau, Mo.

It’s also the country’s largest drainage basin, and drought conditions are sweeping the U.S. More than half of the Upper Mississippi River Basin and more than 90% of the lower basin are currently in drought, some of which is extreme, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub.

That means less water is flowing into the river, slowing shipping traffic and causing headaches for farmers and others in the basin.

At a port near Greenville, Miss., a barge ran aground Oct. 30, causing a backup of approximately 80 boats and 1,000 barges, Lt. Phillip VanderWeit, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Coast Guard, reported Tuesday.

Barges are also carrying about 40 to 50% less cargo, said Paul Rohde, vice president of the Midwest Area of the Waterways Council, a trade association of carriers and shippers. At its worst backup a few weeks ago, there were 150 boats and 2,200 barges stalled along the river, Rohde said.

Though basin residents may not immediately feel the impacts, as they may have during supply chain slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said the delays will be significant.

“We are going to be desperate for road salt for our winters,” Rohde said.

Beyond shipping troubles, the drought is causing other problems in the basin.

Stacy Kinder, mayor of Cape Girardeau in southeast Missouri, said the city experienced a major water main break in October due to dry ground, jeopardizing water quality for residents.

Water lines and pipes in northern states could start to freeze if dry conditions persist after the soil freezes, said Dennis Todey, director of the USDA’s Midwest Climate Hub. For many cities that had to do costly water infrastructure repairs due to flooding in 2019, the drought could again put it at risk – another signal that the two climate extremes are inextricably linked.

And in New Orleans, where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico, saltwater is pushing upstream as river levels drop, also threatening municipal drinking water.

Stacy Kinder

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Mississippi River Cities And Towns Initiative

River banks are exposed by low water on the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The Mississippi River mayors’ group, which is made up of more than 100 municipal leaders across the basin, is pushing for national policy to handle future droughts – which could get longer, more frequent and more severe as the climate changes.

They want federal disaster declarations given to states in drought; policies that allow cities to spend Federal Emergency Management Assistance dollars on drought; compensation for farmers for voluntarily moving land out of irrigation and spending priorities focused on drought mitigation, among other changes.

When the drought will subside is uncertain. Over the next month, much of the basin is forecasted to be warmer than average, meaning evaporation will be a persistent problem, Todey said.

The country is in a La Niña climate pattern, causing drier, warmer weather conditions in the south and colder conditions in the north. The upper Midwest east of the Mississippi could see more snowfall this winter, potentially relieving the Ohio River tributary, according to the Midwest Climate Hub forecasts. But it’s unclear whether precipitation will be higher or lower in the Plains region, meaning a more uncertain path to recovery.

“It’s going to take several rainfalls to be able to start resolving this,” Todey said.

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report For America and the Society of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation.