Committee lowers load limits on Mississippi

A falling Mississippi River forced barge operators to start running narrower, lighter loads over the weekend. And predictions of lower levels to come could squeeze farmers and shippers this fall unless rains break the ongoing drought.

The Lower Mississippi River Committee decided Friday that towboats pushing barges should run no more than seven barges abreast and to limit the loads from running no more than 10 feet below the surface.

Drought-imposed restrictions aren't causing many problems yet, barge operators said, but could if National Weather Service predictions of future river stages come true.

And with harvest time approaching, the low water could cause serious delays moving farm products down river, said Jim Brown, port captain in Cape Girardeau for Memco Barge Lines.

The river stood at 9.8 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge late Monday. The weather service predicted last week that the river level could fall to 3.6 feet by Aug. 24. The lowest level in the official records for Cape Girardeau was January 1909, when the river fell to 0.6 feet. That was before major federal projects to restrict the river were in place.

At Memphis, the river was at minus 3.1 feet Monday afternoon, predicted to fall to minus 7.1 feet by Aug. 24.

The weather service does not include predictions of future rainfall in river forecasts. But drought conditions are intensifying in many areas of the river valley, making any additional water for the river a hope rather than a likelihood.

The lowest water level in memory for the lower Mississippi was in 1988, when the river was minus 10.7 feet at Memphis in July and remained down for months. The low water mark in Cape Girardeau that year occurred in late December, when the gauge bottomed out at 2.96 feet.

Zero on a river gauge doesn't mean there isn't any water in the river. Instead, it is a low-water mark established in early settlement days.

In 1988, low water stranded many barges near Greenville, Miss., with "thousands of barges stopped on either side" of a shallow shoal, said Jim Pogue of the Army Corps of Engineers in Memphis.

"When it gets down that low, it narrows down to one-way traffic" around Cape Girardeau, Brown said.

Low water means more groundings, U.S. Coast Guard officials said, especially in spots where the river slows, allowing sand bars to develop. Barges can also hit bedrock.

There is such a spot near the railroad bridge at Thebes, Ill., Brown said. "It could get low enough that would be real treacherous," he said.

Under normal conditions, the largest towboats push 40 barges, Brown said. The current restrictions limit that to 35. In 1988, the largest towboats were down to 16 barges running only during daylight hours. "We're hoping it doesn't get that way this year," he said.

And the draft, or portion of the barge below the water line, was limited to 9 feet, he said.

Operators normally push loads that lower their barges to as much as 12 1/2 feet below the river surface. Limiting the draft removes tons of goods such as grain, coal, or fertilizer that would otherwise be in the loads. That raises shipping costs to users, such as farmers or utility companies, for each ton that does move and cuts into barge operators' profits at the same time.

Under federal law, the corps of engineers is required to maintain a shipping channel at least 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide in the Mississippi River.

The Lower Mississippi River Committee is comprised of federal officials from the coast guard and corps of engineers as well as barge company officials and others interested in river shipping, said Frank Johnson, committee chairman and operations manager of Ingram Barge Co. in Paducah, Ky.

The low water isn't too worrisome yet, Johnson said. But the committee, which decided on the current limits in a conference call, will meet again soon by telephone, he said, probably later this week.

A new long-range river forecast is issued every Wednesday.

Cape Girardeau is located near the border between the corps' St. Louis District and the Memphis District. The corps began dredging the river in St. Louis on Friday, one of two ways it maintains the river's shipping channel.

Both districts are paying close attention to the falling river, Pogue said. "If the river does get too shallow in any one place, we will get in there to do intensive dredging."

The other way the river is kept open for barges is by dikes that restrict the current to the channel during low water. Those rock structures are clearly visible along the Illinois shore across from Cape Girardeau, as is the sand that settles behind them at higher water levels.

Johnson said the extent of problems created by the low water will be revealed by what has happened to the river bottom by the scouring action of the water.

The Mississippi River experienced a severe flood in 1993. "Maybe since that time the water has helped to scour itself out," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 ext. 126

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How low will it go?

The Mississippi River is predicted to fall to 3.6 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge by Aug. 24. Other modern low water marks include:

* 1.29 feet, Dec. 28, 1989

* 2.44 feet, Jan. 1, 1990

* 2.7 feet, Jan. 2, 1964

* 2.7 feet, Jan. 22, 1940

* 2.96 feet, Dec. 20, 1988

The lowest water level in official records occurred Jan. 10, 1909, when the river gauge read 0.6 feet. That was before modern river management by the Army Corps of Engineers, which restricted water flows into a narrow shipping channel.

SOURCE: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers