Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative in Baton Rouge call on future president for action

September 18, 2024 7:26 AM in News

Source: WBRZ

By: Abigail Whitam

BATON ROUGE - Representatives from 30 cities along the Mississippi River met in Baton Rouge this week to encourage greater business and community connections.  

The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative is an association of "local governments from across the Mississippi River Valley that came together in 2012 to create a new, influential and independent voice for the region," according to MRCTI's website.

Over 170 people attended the 13th conference along with mayors from 30 cities around the nation.

"(This is) a cooperative endeavor agreement is being signed by the chairs of the Corn Belt ports and also the five ports along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and really the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative has been our inspiration, for all of us, before we united the cities through the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, now we are uniting the ports from one end of the river to the other," Robert Sinkler, Corn Belt Ports executive coordinating director, said at the event.

MRCTI convened this year to announce several new partnerships and unveil new cooperative initiatives to face the challenges of the river community and ensure the prosperity of the Mississippi River corridor.

"Among the announcements will be the cooperative agreement from the Mississippi River ports from St. Paul to New Orleans seeking federal recognition of ports between St. Louis and St. Paul. Mayors will also call upon the 47th President of the United States, regardless of party or person, to focus federal policy towards the Mississippi River and its vital role, as well as other announcements," the group said.

Mississippi River mayors meet in Baton Rouge, outline goals for next president

Mayors of Mississippi River cities and towns meeting in Baton Rouge this week are honing a new agreement to open up more international trade, spur greater infrastructure and navigation investment, and raise awareness of the 2,350-mile waterway's significance to the nation's economy and the more than 20 million people who rely on it for drinking water.

On Tuesday, the mayors also called for the next president to keep the nation in the Paris Climate Accord, reform national emergency response policy when it comes to droughts and provide more money for river-based drinking water systems handling growing pollution concerns such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

The new deal and a variety of initiatives were announced during meetings this week in Baton Rouge of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, an advocacy effort of communities relying on the river for their well-being.

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and other river mayors say they want an increased, multi-state focus from the next president on a waterway that drains 31 states and two Canadian provinces while creating 1.5 million jobs and $500 billion in revenue annually. It carries $1 trillion in products past the St. Louis Arch every year.

"The Mississippi River remains the economic and cultural artery running through the heart of America, yet river communities face many challenges to their continuing prosperity," Mitch Reynolds, mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and co-chairman of the group, said during a news conference in Davis S. Rhorer Plaza, near Baton Rouge's riverfront and within sight of the I-10 bridge over the Mississippi.

The meeting comes as the river has seen volatile swings in recent years, from a series of high water events that forced regular use of previously infrequently employed flood control structures on the lower river to, more recently, droughts and low flow periods that have threatened drinking water in the New Orleans area and farther south with saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico.

Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant said the group representing 105 cities and towns is "sending a message" to the next president to address the nation's drought policy early in the next term.

Gretna, Harahan, Westwego and other communities in and near the New Orleans area downriver of Baton Rouge had to scramble last year to prepare for the possibility of a saltwater wedge moving up a low flowing river and contaminating drinking supplies, though the threat ultimately did not materialize there. Plaquemines Parish, near the river's mouth, however dealt with the problem for months.

The saltwater wedge is advancing up the river again this year, forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to build a sill to block it for a third year in a row, though forecasts so far are not predicting problems for Belle Chasse and all points farther upriver.

Constant pointed out that cities and towns cannot get disaster declarations for intense heat or drought and cannot access Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars on drought or mitigation for high heat, though the past three summers have been some of the hottest on record in the Mississippi River Valley.

She added that recent major droughts have been more costly than the nation's worst floods and that heat waves have been more deadly disasters than all but named storms.

The drought of 2012 cost the river corridor $35 billion and the 16-month drought of 2022 and 2023 cost the region $26 billion, while the largest and longest flood in U.S. history in 2019 cost more than $20 billion, the advocacy group said.

But no mechanism exists to incentivize farmers and manufacturers who rely on the river to recycle or conserve water during dry periods, the mayor added.

"These are not difficult policy adjustments to make. We stand ready to work with the next president to make sure our economy is more resilient and adopt national drought policy," Constant said. 

Bob Gallagher, the multi-term mayor of Bettendorf, Iowa, called on the next president to keep the country in the Paris Climate Accord to ensure agricultural and manufacturing exports from Mississippi communities can continue to have access to global markets.

"We know that the Paris Accord only helps us to compete and to move our commodities and goods across the world to the markets," Gallagher said.

Reached in late 2015, the accord aims to limit global temperature change to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels by cutting fossil fuel emissions and other measures.

Gallagher, who leads a community of about 40,000 people in the agriculture-heavy state, said one provision of the accord could be interpreted to mean that goods from nations not abiding by the agreement could have tariffs placed on their exports. Farmers and other commodity groups have spent more than 30 years building overseas markets, he said.

"We can't afford to make any policy decisions that will jeopardize the $164 billion in agricultural commodities the Mississippi River makes possible every year," he said. 

Some 60% of the nation's grain exports pass through Louisiana's ports, the mayors group said.

The Paris Accord was reached during Democratic President Barack Obama's second term, but Republican President Donald Trump pulled the nation out of deal. Democratic President Joe Biden put the country back in the accord soon after taking office in 2021.

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell wasn't at the news conference or meetings on Tuesday due to a conflict, group officials said, but she was expected to speak on Wednesday before the mayors.

David J. Mitchell can be reached at dmitchell@theadvocate.com.

Invasive carp are surging in the Mississippi River. Will people and pets eat them?

Midwestern states are spending millions every year to prevent a giant, goggle-eyed fish from invading rivers and lakes. But the Asian carp has firmly established a home in the Mississippi River basin, and experts say they are here to stay. 

Now, researchers are hoping that creating new markets for the invasive fish could be part of the solution. 

Asian carp, four different species originating from Asia, are widespread in the Mississippi River and surrounding streams. The fish – grass carp, black carp, bighead carp and silver carp – were brought to the United States in the 1970s to feed on algae in aquaculture ponds. When released into the wild, they spread rapidly despite scientists’ doubts that they would reproduce, and now present a huge ecological problem, especially silver carp. 

“They’re eating green phytoplankton, that’s really the basis of the aquatic food web,” said William Kelso, professor of renewable natural resources at Louisiana State University. “They’re taking all of that, that used to go into native fishes and insects and invertebrates.”

With all the phytoplankton going to satiate silver carp bellies, less goes to the other plankton-eating fish. 

Silver carp particularly represent a huge threat to the fisheries in the Great Lakes. In June 2023, 408 carp were caught in Minnesota, stunning officials. Millions of dollars a year are spent on the construction of electric barriers to keep carp from invading the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River, with a $1 billion dollar development plan in the works from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Illinois, but it still might not be enough. 

“They’re doing everything they can to try and make sure they don’t get established in the Great Lakes,” said Kelso. “That would be a mess, a big mess, because you really can’t get rid of them.”

Researchers say just 10 breeding pairs could inundate the ecosystem. 

Silver carp are coming. Barriers might slow them down, but stopping them completely may be impossible. Officials and researchers think, however, that the creation of consumer markets for silver carp could work to manage their numbers. 

“If you can create a successful market around the fish, then the markets can be a tool to manage them,” said Ben Meadows, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Alabama Birmingham. 

Getting people to eat them

One way to get the silver carp population under control seems relatively simple – eat the carp. 

Meadows spent years researching how making silver carp valuable as food could be a tool used to control invasive species. He concluded that, while completely eradicating silver carp is all but impossible, controlling their numbers by “pushing out demand” for the fish is feasible. 

“A rebranding kind of campaign for them could potentially bring their price up, making it more economically viable for people to go fish for them,” he said.

The white, flaky flesh of the fish is rich in nutrients and a popular commodity in Asian countries, where it remains a staple food in Chinese cuisine, but it’s less popular with Americans.

“If we can get people to think that [carp] is the food equivalent of tilapia or rainbow trout or catfish … those would start to create the self-fulfilling cycle,” said Meadows. 

Companies such as Two Rivers, an Asian carp processor based in Kentucky, are currently fishing carp from the Mississippi River and surrounding areas, but the market for human consumption in the United States is complicated.

“They’re incredibly bony,” said Kelso about silver carp, and “very difficult to filet.”

This combined with a general American distaste for fish, according to Jim Garvey, zoology professor at Southern Illinois University, makes it hard to develop a U.S. market for carp. 

“Human consumers” in the U.S., he said, “are tough.”

One attempt to counteract the bad reputation of carp started in 2022 with a fish-centric PR campaign. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced the new name of asian carp: Copi.

“The only way that we’ve found has an impact is actually going out and removing them,” said Garvey. He was involved in the process of renaming silver carp, and conducted research as to how the rebranding campaign could help increase demand. 

Renaming a fish has worked before– Chilean sea bass and mahi mahi were once known as Patagonian toothfish and dolphinfish respectively. 

Inspired by the copious amounts of the invasive fish in the Mississippi River basin and surrounding areas, the fish-formerly-known-as-carp made its debut as a new menu item in restaurants from Chicago to Louisiana. Lawmakers even held taste-testing events to hype up the new fish.

But the campaign hasn’t been resoundingly effective. American consumers still aren’t convinced that copi is a fish they want to buy, even at current prices as cheap as $0.09 to $0.30 per pound as of April. Compared with the up to $7 per pound price of largemouth bass this April, human demand for copi simply isn’t there.

Getting dogs to eat them 

Other markets emerging within the past few years present an interesting opportunity that researchers and officials feel could be a better solution, such as pet food manufacturing. Carp can be ground down, bones and all, and processed into pellets used in animal feed and pet kibble.

“Carp are perfect food in a lot of ways,” said Garvey.

Silver carp are relatively low in contaminants, as they eat the very base of the food chain where toxins haven’t had the chance to accumulate.

“This is an unwanted protein source for millions of Americans that literally jumps in the boat,” said Meadows.

He said that while there may be different hurdles to the success of getting the pet food industry to embrace carp and help decrease numbers, “This seems, just in my head, to be a perfect little merger.”

Silver carp are quite healthy for pets, too – Omega-3 fatty acids in the flesh help promote shine on dog and cat fur. Carp is also easily digestible for cats and dogs and provides a rich source of protein.

Cash incentives

Support for silver carp consumption in the form of government subsidies has temporarily worked in the past; Kentucky and Tennessee gave money to support carp harvest from 5-7 cents per pound, according to Meadows’ research, while Illinois helped pay for the creation of processing plants, spending $1.9 million to help a plant open in Grafton, Illinois in 2012. 

However, many of these per-pound subsidies were too low to be effective in the long term. Meadows found that a subsidy of $1.13 per pound is the minimum amount needed to achieve success.

Subsidies for processing plants could work, but difficulties such as manufacturing inefficiencies and even bad smells are barriers– the Grafton plant even faced fines and expulsion from the area because of the smell. 

“It isn’t an efficient product,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy group. “There are just so many carp.”

Hope still remains that carp control is possible, however, and some of that hope revolves around consumer attitudes. People might pay a higher price for carp-based pet food if they knew about the environmental benefits, said Meadows. 

Creative cooking, such as making carp burgers with dill pickles and cheddar or New Orleans-style carp po’ boys, when paired with the knowledge that eating carp helps the environment, could be more palatable to Americans.

“They continue to deteriorate the environmental health of the Mississippi River,” said Wellenkamp. “I certainly hope the market approach can work.”

Even if elimination is impossible, reducing the number of invasive carp, especially silver carp, could have huge ecological benefits. 

While reducing their numbers to 80% of what they are now would be ideal, according to Kelso, “If we could reduce their population sizes down…50 to 75%, that would be good,” he said. 

“That would probably be about the best we could do.”

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. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative is also a Walton grantee.

Upper Mississippi River flooding offers relief after ongoing drought in the south

July 16, 2024

Upstream flooding along the upper Mississippi may bring downstream benefits and alleviate summer drought, according to meteorologists.

A group of mayors and forecasters along the Mississippi River basin held a press conference on Thursday about the benefits and challenges of heavy rainfall in the Midwest in June and July. Representatives of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) gave an update on how flooding in states like Iowa, Illinois and Missouri will affect downstream communities.

Anna Wolverton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the flooding was “a saving grace” for communities on the middle to lower portions of the river that have been stricken with drought over the past several years.

“This rainfall is keeping the water levels up. Really, this is a good thing for the lower Miss,” said Wolverton. She added that the current flood crest is moving through southern Iowa to central Illinois and northern Missouri. Wolverton anticipates that the river will drop back to normal levels by September.

“We just pulled out of a 16-month drought that cost our nation $26 billion,” said Mitch Reynolds, mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and MRCTI co-chair.

The flooding is expected to provide relief to the lower Mississippi River states after the river experienced its lowest water levels for the second year in a row, according to a January 2024 report from the National Centers for Environmental Information. The flooding means that communities along the lower Mississippi River will likely not need to worry about low water until the dry season this fall.

According to the National Weather Service, the flood wave emerged this spring from an unexpected wet pattern in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota as thunderstorms pummeled the area. Remnants of Hurricane Beryl also brought an influx of extra rain.

A barge traverses the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana on June 7. Aerial support provided by SouthWings. photo provided by Iowa governor’s office

The flooding will keep the elevation of the river higher, for now. But much of the upstream water will likely be soaked up by the river banks before reaching Louisiana, said Amanda Roberts, senior hydrologist at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center of the National Weather Service.

“We’re really not seeing a significant change in our forecast,” said Roberts. “It looks like things will continue to slowly fall over the next several weeks.”

Communities in southeastern Louisiana can hope that the higher river levels and increase in tropical activity will stave off a third year of intense saltwater intrusion. The water from the Midwest will swell the river for several weeks, which could help keep dense saltwater from creeping up as quickly as last year, when it threatened drinking water for thousands.

With the current water levels, Roberts is not super concerned about the saltwater wedge. But that could definitely change, she added.

While the river level is high on the Mississippi, flows on the Ohio River are a bit below normal, said Karl Winters, hydrologist and surface water specialist for the United States Geological Survey. Roberts said that rainfall in the upper Mississippi basin and Ohio Valley drive river levels down south.

The higher water levels could also help keep invasive algae species at bay, according to Colin Wellenkamp with MRCTI. Higher temperatures and lower water allow invasive algae to creep into the river from the Gulf of Mexico. Higher waters in the lower Mississippi may prevent harmful algal blooms from entering the river.

“The invasive species situation in the Mississippi River continues to worsen over time, regardless of flood and drought,” said Wellenkamp.

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. MRCTI is also funded by Walton.

Mississippi River cities say they’re better prepared for flooding

An organization of river communities say investments in natural flood control measures means high water is less of a problem

By Hope Kirwan

July 12, 2024

Frequent rains have caused moderate to major flooding throughout the upper Mississippi River this summer.

But La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds said these types of flood events are less of a problem than they once were. 

“Cities like mine have, over the last several years, started to put in place infrastructure to better handle high water events,” said Reynolds, who co-chairs the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. 

The association of mayors from river communities held a call with reporters Thursday to talk about how they’re handling this summer’s high water and to share thoughts about a future of more frequent flooding thanks to climate change.

The National Weather Service reported the average stage of the Mississippi River in La Crosse was the second highest level on record for the month of June. River levels have declined in recent days, falling from moderate flood stage to minor at La Crosse on Thursday morning.

Reynolds told reporters it’s unusual to see flooding on the Mississippi in summer. High water events typically come after the annual snowmelt in the spring. But he said cities like La Crosse, along with environmental groups, are preparing for a future with more unpredictable or severe flooding.

“(We’re) working with Ducks Unlimited to identify flood water storage areas in the City of La Crosse and up and down the Mississippi River,” he said. “So that when we do have these high flood events, we are better able to store water, move water around with our water lift stations, that type of thing.”

This year, Reynolds said the region was ready to absorb the excess water because of prolonged drought conditions in recent years. He said it’s the first time since 2022 that there has been no drought in the larger Mississippi River corridor, adding that “in some ways, the precipitation is welcome.”

Flooding on the Mississippi River partially covers a statue in Riverside Park in La Crosse on Monday, April 24, 2023. Hope Kirwan/WPR

Leaders of river towns look for support from flooding, drought

River communities are not the only ones changing how they approach flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced this week that structures like schools or bridges being rebuilt after a flood must be rebuilt to prevent future flood damage.

Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, said his organization supports policies meant to prevent repetitive losses, as long as communities are given flexibility to pursue new solutions.

Wellenkamp told reporters that communities also need more federal support when water levels fall. He said the prolonged drought over the last two years cost the Mississippi River region an estimated $26 billion.

“Several of our states have attempted to get disaster declarations for drought and intense heat,” he said. “The drought ones have been denied again and again and again. So we need to address this.”

While this summer’s precipitation has been a welcome reprieve, weather experts say seeing a return of drought conditions is not out of the question.

National Weather Service meteorologist Anna Wolverton said that this point of summer is typically a drier time of year for the region. The agency’s outlook for the rest of summer shows above normal temperatures are likely for much of the upper Midwest.

“Should we see any periods with above normal heat over the Midwest especially, we could see some rapid onset of drought begin,” Wolverton told reporters. “If or when that happens, soils will dry out much more quickly. The streams and tributaries will begin to dry up and that all leads downstream to the Mississippi River.”

Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.

Upper Mississippi River flooding offers relief after drought but delta towns prepare for a wash

by Phillip PowellJuly 11, 2024 4:10 pm

Intense floods in the upper Mississippi River basin may hold a silver lining for communities in the Arkansas Delta and Louisiana hit by drought, according to an association of local governments from up and down the Mississippi River Valley.

Representatives of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative gave an update Thursday morning on how flooding in states like Iowa, Illinois and Missouri will affect downstream communities. Anna Wolverton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the flooding was “actually a saving grace” for communities on the middle to lower portions of the river. 

“At the beginning of June, we were beginning to see in the long range forecast the possibility for some low water levels, beginning as early as the start of June,” Wolverton said. “But here we are, this rainfall is keeping the water levels up. Really, this is a good thing for the lower Miss.”

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The flooding is expected to provide relief to the lower Mississippi River states after the river experienced the lowest water levels for the second year in the row, according to a January 2024 report from the National Centers for Environmental Information. The floods will mean that communities along the lower Mississippi River likely will not worry about low water until its usual dry season this fall.

According to the National Weather Service, the flood wave emerged this spring from an unexpected wet pattern in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota as thunderstorms pummeled the area.

But while the flooding will offer relief to lower Mississippi states after a year of drought, some Arkansas communities in the flood zone, such as Blytheville, were still making preparations. 

“As we know, Blytheville is relatively flat land, and whenever the forecast is flash flooding, we prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville told the Arkansas Times at the teleconference.

Logan serves as the current secretary of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. Arkansas Delta communities are resilient and familiar with the challenges posed by high waters, she said, but Blytheville has struggled to control flooding in recent years. “Our local infrastructure is not equipped to handle the effects of continuous rain,” she said.

With the flood crest from upstream moving closer to Arkansas, compounded by recent rains from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, Logan nevertheless said Blytheville is prepared for the potential flooding.

“We are affected heavily because we are flat land, there is nowhere for my water to go outside of a healthy drainage system — ditches, other tributaries — and then into the river,” Logan said. “Here in the delta, we are working hard in partnership with Mississippi River Cities and Towns to stay ahead of the flood waters by identifying high impact areas and finding ways to add capacity and relieve stress from our storm wall systems.” She spoke about the town’s efforts to clear storm drains 24 to 48 hours before expected flooding and her team’s efforts to work through rains to address flooding.

With preparations in place, Logan said she was confident Blytheville would handle any additional flooding from the north. As of Thursday, the National Water Prediction Service was not forecasting any flooding in communities down the Mississippi River south of Hickman, Kentucky.

Thinking About a Mississippi River Cruise? There’s One Big ‘If.'

Though operators are building ships, and towns are investing in landings and other infrastructure, fluctuations in the river’s flow, exacerbated by climate change, are hampering sailings.

By Rowan Moore Gerety

Rowan Moore Gerety spoke to civic leaders, cruise passengers and several cruise-industry businesses focused on the Mississippi River.

July 11, 2024

Tom Trovato and his wife, Trish, paid more than $20,000 and waited two years to experience Viking’s inaugural cruise up the Mississippi River. Leaving in September 2022, it was supposed be a two-week excursion from New Orleans to St. Paul, Minn., a trip of some 1,800 miles.

They never got past Memphis.

Low water levels, caused by drought, narrowed the river’s main shipping channel to allow only one-way traffic, first stalling their boat, the Viking Mississippi, and then ultimately aborting the trip.

Though they got a full refund, the Trovatos, who live in Surprise, Ariz., have no plans to try again.

“If I live to be 125, it might be on my bucket list,” said Mr. Trovato, 79.

The Mississippi River is central to American identity, with all the contradictions that entails. It’s an artery that sustained Indigenous cultures for thousands of years — “Mississippi” derives from the Ojibwe for “great river” — and it marked the frontier from which Lewis and Clark set out to find a route to the Pacific. The river’s alluvial deposits and deep waters formed the basis of prosperity for generations of farmers, and brought perdition to vast numbers of enslaved people who toiled along its banks and feared little more than being “sold down the river.”

For many people, particularly baby boomers reaching their retirement years, a cruise along the Mississippi River is a dream trip. But it’s becoming harder to make it come true. Though operators are building new ships, and towns and cities are investing in infrastructure to welcome boat traffic, cruises on the Mississippi face mounting challenges from an increasing number of droughts and floods.

Decades of forest and wetland destruction, dam construction and dredging have added to natural fluctuations in the Mississippi’s flow. Now climate change has only heightened the river’s tendency for dramatic seasonal shifts in water levels, frequently rerouting ships and causing delays.

Just late last month, in St. Paul — the final port for the Trovatos’ original itinerary — rising Mississippi River levels forced the closure of shoreline roads, bridges and parks. The river rose 20.17 feet above its banks before cresting, the seventh major flood in St. Paul since 2010, according to the National Water Prediction Service, and the eighth highest crest recorded.

Farther south, Memphis had made its $40 million Beale Street Landing the centerpiece of a larger redevelopment of parks and trails snaking along six miles of Mississippi shoreline. Last year, more than half of the 128 scheduled cruise ship landings there were canceled, mostly because of low water levels that made it impossible for the boats to reach the dock.

In July 2021, an overnight passenger riverboat visited Kimmswick, Mo., for the first time in 125 years, when the 341-foot American Duchess docked at its new landing. The town was expecting the cruise industry to boost tourism in the area. But the American Duchess was also the last cruise to dock there. There hasn’t been enough water for boats to come back until recently: The Viking Mississippi was finally scheduled to land in Kimmswick on Monday, but this time, the water was too high.

“We’re just seeing climate impacts stack up,” said Colin Wellenkamp, the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a coalition of local governments along the river. “We used to see them every 10 to 15 years, now we’re seeing them where they just don’t quit.”

‘Demand’s not going anywhere but up’

Cruise-ship passengers often take excursions by bus. In Europe, cruise operators often ferry passengers between segments of a trip on chartered buses.Credit...Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

Despite the pandemic, when most travel worldwide was at a costly standstill, bookings on river cruises in the United States rose 25 percent from 2019 to 2022, according to data from AAA, the automobile owners’ group that also tracks air and cruise travel. An analysis by the market research firm Grandview Research in 2022 projected continued growth of more than 20 percent a year for U.S. river cruising through 2030, largely on the strength of the Mississippi River cruises.

River cruising “took off first in the European rivers, but it’s always been really built on American travelers,” said Charlie Robertson, an owner and chief executive of American Cruise Lines, the dominant operator on the Mississippi. Both American and Viking, a major player in Europe and Asia, are already booking Mississippi cruises into 2025, and building new ships to serve this market. Though the parent company of the third Mississippi cruise operator, American Queen Voyages, declared bankruptcy earlier this year, citing difficulties recovering from the effects of the pandemic, American Cruise Lines purchased all four paddle wheelers in its fleet.

“Demand’s not going anywhere but up,” Mr. Wellenkamp said. “Everybody wants to see the historic Main Street, and everybody wants to see this ecological icon Mark Twain wrote about.”

A small bridge near Kimmswick, Mo. For many cruise ships, sailing under some bridges that span the Mississippi during high water is impossible.Credit...Bryan Birks for The New York Times

In Kimmswick, the new landing had local leaders dreaming of a return to the town’s roots as a key stop for Mississippi steamboats. After years spent building sandbag levees to protect Kimmswick — three major floods threatened the downtown since 2015 — and building a landing to accommodate 40-foot swings in the river’s flow, drought severe enough to threaten the town’s economic prospects seemed unthinkable.

“​​How can you be a river-facing city if you don’t have any riverboats?” said Phil Stang, Kimmswick’s mayor.

Letter to the Editor

Mike Drake [Apr 15, 2024]

In April 2023, in the city’s bill listing, there was an expense for a $3,000 membership fee for Mayor Goins to join an organization, the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) one that previous mayors paid nothing, ZERO to join. When asked about this fee by Alderwoman Carolyn MacAfee, he defended that expense, saying that there would be a great deal of useful information to bring back by attending these out of town, Alton taxpayer funded meetings. Carolyn asked him to report back on what benefits to Alton these meetings provide. The first meeting he attended was in Minnesota, less than a month after paying the $3,000…that travel cost to the city was an additional $1000. As expected, he did NOT report on any information gleaned from that meeting.

In the past 30 days, there have been more meetings, more expenses submitted. Two weeks ago, there were Southwest flight tickets to Milwaukee. This week nearly $1,500 MORE travel expenses were submitted. They were for meals ranging from $36 to $50, Uber rides $121, EARLY flight boarding passes $100, and another $1,027 in hotel expenses. Again, Alderwoman MacAfee questioned these expenses. His answer was that he went to Washington D. C. to attend another MRCTI meeting. She asked if these bills were for just one person, to which he refused to answer, but avoided the question by quickly saying he met with Congresswoman Budzinski and talked about funding some local projects, but he could not provide more details. Kudos to Alderwoman MacAfee for noticing these expenses and questioning Mayor Goins.

My point is, previous mayors were active in this organization, but did not pay a $3,000 membership fee. This $3,000 membership fee has now cost the city nearly $6,000 that I am aware of. This is simply an excuse to take expensive, taxpayer funded, out of town, trips, stay in expensive hotels, have expensive meals, purchase early boarding passes for flights, and pay to ride an UBER around in Washington D.C. There are many in Alton who cannot afford groceries, and we must put up with this??!! I pray the remaining days in this administration are few. As an Alton taxpayer footing those bills, I am disgusted with these pleasure trips. His evasive answer regarding this most recent trip to D.C. is just more evidence of the lack of transparency of this administration.

Cash Market Moves Mississippi River Ports Offer Assistance After Baltimore Bridge Collapse

By  Mary Kennedy , DTN Basis Analyst

Mayors of towns and cities along the Mississippi River hosted several national organizations at a news teleconference on March 28, 2024, to offer insights on plans and options for keeping the U.S. supply chain open, the possible increases in shipping traffic and the related capacity requirements of the Mississippi River and the ports servicing the river.

"Our thoughts and support extend to our friends and colleagues in Baltimore, and we stand ready to assist as needed," said La Crosse, Wisconsin, Mayor Mitch Reynolds.

Reynolds, co-chair of the of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) added, "Since 2015, the Mayors of MRCTI have been steadily working with industry and federal partners to increase the capacity of Mississippi River port and intermodal infrastructure across the corridor, contributing to nearly $100 million in new investment into Mississippi River supply chain capacity."

"The question is how can we assist in receiving Baltimore diversions and can we intermodal that freight to the rest of the country efficiently? The Port of New Orleans is the Mississippi River's gateway port to the world, generating more than $100 million in revenue annually. Port NOLA is exceeding the 500,000 TEU threshold year after year six times in a row," said Belinda Constant, mayor of Gretna, Louisiana and MRCTI Louisiana State Chair.

Janine Mansour, head of key accounts at Port NOLA, said, "From the perspective of offering freight and vessel solutions to shippers that are using Baltimore, we recognize that neighboring East Coast ports are first ports of call and 18 vessels scheduled to Baltimore between the crisis and Tuesday were already diverted." She added that using the East Coast infrastructure will be the first and most logical option from a logistics standpoint.

Mayors Say River Bridges Need Assessment to Escape Fate of Key Bridge

Mayors of cities and towns along the Mississippi River say commerce will be affected by Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

By Annemarie Mannion

Mississippi River bridges that were built in the time frame or earlier than the recently collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore should be evaluated for their vulnerability to a vessel collision, mayors of cities and towns along the river said.

Norma Jean Mattei, past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, also made that assessment March 28, participating in a press conference hosted by The Mississippi River and Towns Initiative, a coalition of over 100 mayors along the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Louisiana,

The Key Bridge, which was built in 1977, was struck by a container ship and fell into the Patapsco River on March 26. 

Mattei cited several bridges that may need evaluation: the Vicksburg Bridge in Mississippi, which was built in 1930; the Crescent City Bridge in New Orleans, which opened in 1938; the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish La., which dates to 1935; and the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge in St. Charles Parish, La., which opened in 1983. 

She said a requirement that bridges be assessed for their risk of a possible vessel collision was not required of new bridges until 1991. 

“A lot of our crossings [on the Mississippi] are older and may never have had a full-blown vessel collision assessment –so that’s a lesson learned,” she said. 

While not all bridges will need to be assessed, Mattei said intervals at which some should be assessed and triggers, such as a change in the frequency or type of river traffic, should be established. 

“A trigger might be an increase in vessel traffic or in the size or types of vessels,” she said. “We should look at those bridges where larger vessels may be passing compared to what we are used to seeing.” 

Mattei noted that the Mississippi River does not generally see transit of the type of massive container ship that collided with the Key Bridge. However, as ENR reported in 2022, a $238-million effort to deepen the lower river is underway and will allow larger “Post Panamax” shipping vessels to use the waterway and access ports in that area.

The term “Post Panamax” refers to the 2016 expansion of the Panama Canal that created new locks to accommodate large ships.

Mattei noted that other factors, such as the velocity of the river’s waters, also could play a role in an assessment and in vessels coming into contact with a bridge.

Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the mayors' group, said $40 billion of the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law is targeted for bridges and “one of the priorities" is resilience. 

“There are needs here and there are resources being pushed out,” he says. “This is an opportunity to analyze risks and assess risks.”