This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 31, 2012 - The drought of 2012 has dropped the middle Mississippi River, the reach between the confluence of the Ohio and the Missouri Rivers - to anomalously low levels, feared by some to soon set a new, low-water record. In several areas barge traffic has been slowed and reduced in capacity, and many say the huge tows will be halted completely if the water drops much further. The barge industry says the economic consequences will be disastrous, as billions of dollars worth of commodities – primarily corn, soybeans, coal, and oil products – are ready for shipping on the Mississippi River.
Several emergency measures have been proposed in response. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is blasting rock formations to deepen the channel. Senators and governors from Missouri and Illinois have pleaded for president to declare an emergency so vast volumes of water would have to be released from huge reservoirs on the Missouri River, about 1,000 miles upstream. Many officials, farmers and tribes from the drought-stricken, upper basin states oppose these releases, so instead the Corps is releasing water from Lake Carlyle in drought-stricken Illinois.
All of this clamor raises four questions:
- how low is the river,
- how necessary is blasting,
- how should water be used during dry times,
- who should pay for costly interventions?
First the river levels. The Mississippi at St. Louis reached a stage of -4.5 feet this December. Claims have been made that this is the lowest water since 1988, yet the river level was as low as -5.3 ft. in 1989, -4.5 ft. in 2003. The river is normally low this time of year, and shippers routinely plan for it. Claims of emergency rest on needlessly pessimistic forecasts that no significant rain will fall for weeks in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa or Minnesota. We’ll see.
What about rock blasting? Congress has allocated $10 million to the Corps for removal of rock pinnacles to widen and deepen the channel near Grand Tower and Thebes in Illinois. These rocks represent rare interfaces between the water and channel wall in this stretch of the river. In places it has been so severely channelized, or narrowed, for barge traffic that it is only half as wide as it was historically. These rocks represent prime habitat and shelter for the highly impacted aquatic ecosystem in this part of the river. Besides causing habitat loss, blast concussion will kill many fish in these areas.
These rocks were present in many earlier years when water levels were even lower than they are today. Consequently, this blasting cannot be construed as “channel maintenance” because these rocks clearly aren’t “new.” Instead, this activity clearly represents a new construction project. This is no trivial detail, because the barge interests should pay for half of the cost of any new construction. Regarding its share, the federal government should question whether this large expenditure is a national priority during a protracted recession.
How about water releases? The barge Industry has requested the release of a million acre-feet of additional water from the Missouri River reservoirs in the Dakotas and Montana. According to the Corps about 20 percent of the reservoir’s storage capacity has already been used in just one year. Because no one knows how long this drought might last, the Corps must follow its longstanding plans that can accommodate a potential, 12-year-long drought. The upper basin may already have a sizeable deficit in reservoir capacity. Yet Missouri and Illinois officials have adamantly protested the normal winter reduction in reservoir releases, while the barge industry demands that more water be immediately released from the reservoirs.
The Corps has been steadfast in its refusal to release more water from the Missouri River reservoirs, other than a slight increase to assure that water supply intakes downstream are not further exposed jeopardizing water supply to river communities like St. Louis. The Corps affirms that by law the management of the Missouri River is NOT authorized to provide water for navigation on the Mississippi River, and the upper Missouri River states wholeheartedly agree. Note that multiple water uses and consequent demands on reservoir operations have been recognized since their construction more than 50 years ago -- these include flood control, water supply and hydropower. Of course, water conservation becomes a real priority during drought conditions like those we are experiencing.
Even if Mississippi River navigation were an authorized purpose for the Missouri River reservoir management, what is water worth? In much of the west, agricultural interests pay between $10 and $100 per acre-foot of water, while municipalities generally pay between $200 and $3,000 per acre-foot. So, what is the real value of water requested from western reservoirs by the Mississippi River barge industry? At half an acre-foot a second, conservative cost estimates would range from $1 million to $10 million a day. Of course, as usual, the barge companies expect that this allocation will be granted absolutely free, and our regional representatives who chronically pander to them clearly agree that taxpayers should forgo that revenue to continue to prop up an industry that refuses to stand on its own.
The issue of water storage in the Missouri River reservoirs is even more contentious. The upper states want additional water from the reservoirs to support their new oil shale fracking industry, which poses an entirely additional set of threats to water supplies. To this is added a new proposal to annually pump 600,000 million acre-feet of Missouri River water to Colorado for distribution to southwestern states, to offset chronic deficits in the Colorado River basin. Such proposals underscore the monetary value of water and its real yet routinely overlooked importance.
While water is in short supply during a drought, even in these times there is no shortage of imbecilic proposals for its use and free allocation.
Bob Criss is a professor in the department of earth and planetary studies at Washington University. Brad Walker is Wetlands and Floodplain director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.: