CORPS SAYS RESERVOIR STORAGE FINALLY NORMAL

With the Midwest still reeling from the economic impact of the flood of 1993, it's difficult to remember that just four years ago next week the Coast Guard closed a 200-mile reach of the Mississippi River between Cairo, Ill. and St. Louis to commercial barge traffic because of low water and ice floes.

A three-year drought caused the river to drop to dangerously low levels in December 1989, resulting in numerous barge and towboat groundings in the shallow channel. In addition, a late December cold wave sent temperatures below zero and created large ice floes that carried away navigation buoys, making navigation dangerous.

On Dec. 28, 1989, the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau fell to 1.29 feet, the third-lowest level here since 1897. The record low-river stage of 0.60 of a foot occurred on Jan. 15, 1909; the second lowest was 1 foot on Dec. 27, 1897.

The river was finally reopened in early January 1990, after disrupting barge traffic for several weeks.

The December 1989 closing was not nearly as disastrous for the barge industry as was the nearly one-month closing in August of the Mississippi River between Cairo and St. Paul, Minn., during the record flood of 1993.

The same weather conditions that caused the flood of 1993 also had one positive aspect. The Corps of Engineers said after nine consecutive months of above average runoff, the upper Missouri River's six up-stream reservoirs are essentially filled to capacity.

It is the first time in six years that storage in the huge reservoirs was normal after the series of drought years that left states on the upper and lower ends of the Missouri River fighting for what little water was released from the reservoirs between 1989 and 1993.

The Corps said annual precipitation for 1990, 1991 and 1992 was only slightly below average for the upper Missouri River watershed region. But it was the nine months of above normal precipitation this year that finally brought the reservoirs back up to their normal levels.

Lake Oahe, just north of Pierre, S.D., was the highest level ever for the end of November, said Duane Sveum, chief of the Corps of Engineers' Reservoir Control Center.

Oahe ended the November 18 feet higher than November 1992. Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota closed out November 16 feet above last year, and Fort Peck Lake in Montana was more than 19 feet higher than last year.

The Corps said runoff into the lakes this year amounted to 34.8 million acre feet of water, compared to 24.6 million acre feet last year. An acre foot of water is an acre covered with a foot of water.

"Reservoir levels remain high," said Sveum. "Storage has decreased only 0.6 million acre feet since the peak in early September."

Now the Corps must begin lowering the lake levels during the winter months to make room for the spring runoff from the plains and snowmelt from the mountains of the upper states.

Snow this winter could add to the prospect of more flooding for low-lying areas of the lower Missouri River in Missouri and along the Mississippi River below St. Louis.

The Corps plans to release 15,000 cubic feet of water a second from the Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, S.D., during the winter, compared with only 7,500 cubic feet per second last winter.

The extra water releases will help maintain water in the navigation channel on the Mississippi from St. Louis to Cairo. Navigation on the Missouri River between St. Louis and Kansas City closed Dec. 1.

That's good news for the barge industry, which is still trying to recover from the impact of the closing of the Mississippi River in August and the overall impact of the flood. "It's been a pretty difficult year for the industry," said W.N. "Norb" Whitlock, senior vice president for American Commercial Barge Lines Co. in Jeffersonville, Ind.

Barge lines have been busy since September trying to clear out the backlog of barge traffic caused by the summer flooding.

During July, slightly more than 600,000 tons of cargo and commodities moved through the locks on the Mississippi River, compared with 7.7 million tons a year earlier. Most of the drop in tonnage was due to barge loading limits.

The tonnage figures for September, October and November were up significantly from last year. That increase, like the earlier declines, were attributed to the flood and the nearly monthlong closure of the river in August.

Barge lines lost some of their business during the flood to the railroads, but the same flood also caused extensive damage to tracks and railroad bridges and disrupted train schedules.

Meanwhile, the barge industry is running out of time to complete its shipments of grain and other commodities from the Midwestern ports to export points on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The shipping season on the upper Mississippi will close soon as the river freezes over, which means no more shipments will move downstream until next spring.

Another barge line official said the barge industry may still feel the impact of the flood in 1994 because of field and crop damage caused by flooding. There is also a nagging fear among barge lines and the Corps that heavy snows this winter could lead to more flooding next spring. However, few expect it to approach the same magnitude as the flood of 1993, which is now considered a once-in-a-200-year event.

On Aug. 8, the Mississippi River crested at Cape Girardeau at an all-time record high of 48.49 feet. The river here crested 11 times this year; the latest crest, 35.5 feet, occurred on Nov. 20.

Dave Busse, senior water-control manager for the Corps' St. Louis District office, said soil along the Missouri and upper Mississippi watersheds is already supersaturated with moisture because of excessive precipitation and flooding. That means any additional rain this winter or spring snowmelt will go directly into the rivers and not be absorbed by the ground.

That's just the opposite from four years ago, when every drop of water that fell on the ground was quickly absorbed by the moisture-starved soil, leaving none to run off.