Low Water Levels On The Mississippi River A Major Threat To Commerce: ‘This Is Absolu

[jaxx]

Low Water Levels On The Mississippi River A Major Threat To Commerce: ‘This Is Absolutely Not Normal’
By Energy Interns on Jul 16, 2012 at 2:13 pm

Companies operating along the Mississippi River are seeing a drastic cut in business as severe drought lowers water levels and makes shipping increasingly difficult.

The drought, which now covers more than 1,000 counties across the US, has dropped water levels 50 feet below last year’s levels in some places. Last winter’s lack of snow, the absence of any major tropical storms from the Gulf of Mexico, sweltering temperatures, and the lack of rain this spring and summer are to blame for the shallow water.

<..> As the water levels fall, barges have run aground near Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the water is already less than 5 feet deep, and shipping companies have been forced to curtail their business. The Wall Street Journal reports:

<..> Some river ports have been forced to close temporarily or shut down parts of their operations because of the low water levels. At the port of Rosedale in the Mississippi Delta, port director Robert Maxwell Jr. said water levels are about 50 feet below what they were last year, when flooding shut down the port. If the water falls any lower, there was a ‘high likelihood’ he would have to close, he said. One of the port’s public loading docks is inoperable, with equipment normally in the water now hanging the air. The Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to come this week to dredge, where heavy equipment is used to dig out sediment from waterways to make them passable for shipping.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07...ot-normal/

This will drive prices up fast.

[pappy]

WOW! Can you imagine how bad it would be if "Climate Change" wasn't just a left wing conspiracy?

Why don't we just cut taxes and build another pipeline, that should help!

[sandnsea]

The Army Corp of Engineers?? Isn't that some of that there big guvmint they're always haranguing about? I swear they would already be a third world country if they were cut loose from the rest of the nation.

[Willinois]

Much of that barge traffic is coal. I love irony.