As Mississippi River Dries Up, Army Corps of Engineers Dredge & Remove Rock

Behold but one of the effects of climate change… the mighty Mississippi River going dry.

And really, why argue about what’s causing it when we need to be responding to the problems it creates?

—

Initial Mississippi River Rock Removal Complete, Says Army

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said contractors have completed the first phase of emergency work to remove rocks that have held up barge traffic in the drought-stricken Mississippi River.

Contractors have excavated about 365 cubic yards (279 cubic meters) of limestone from the river near the town of Thebes in southern Illinois, deepening the channel by about two feet, the Corps said in a statement today.

“The work has deepened the channel enough to

successfully maintain navigation through this critical reach of the river,” Major General John Peabody, the Corps’ Mississippi Valley division commander, said in the statement.

Barge traffic for shippers including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) of Decatur, Illinois, has slowed on the river due to shallow water caused by the worst U.S. drought since the 1930s. About $2.8 billion worth of cargo, including grain, coal and fertilizer, moves along the Mississippi during a typical January, according to the American Waterways Operators, an Arlington, Virginia-based industry group. The group has called for more water to be released from reservoirs upstream from St. Louis if drought conditions worsen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Wingfield in Washington at bwingfield3

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97; Ann Hughey at ahughey

Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone/

—

“…if anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance.”

–St. Thomas Aquinas, upon his deathbed, 7 March 1274

Sent from my typewriter.