Friday, January 11, 2013

Drought Threatens to Close Mississippi to Barges | Essentials

Drought Threatens to Close Mississippi to Barges

Congressman Fleischmann tours Chickamauga Lock
Congressman Fleischmann tours Chickamauga Lock by USACEpublicaffairs
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Excerpt:

After months of drought, companies that deliver grain and other items down the Mississippi River are being plagued by a prospective nightmare: If water levels fall too low, the country 's major inland waterway can become impassable to barges simply as the harvest goes to market. Any closure of the river would upend the transportation system that has held American grain since prior to steamboats and Mark Twain. So delivering companies are scrambling to find alternative means to move crops to the Gulf Coast. The focus of best issue is a 180-mile stretch of the river between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill. That's where absence of rainfall has squeezed the stations from its normal width of 1,000 feet or even more to a just a couple of hundred feet. And it's shallow.

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Mark Twain

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barges

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GeographicFeature: Mississippi River

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