Drought costs mounting in parched Missouri

Pastures are browning and dusty across much of Missouri. On both the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, fewer barges can navigate the low water. Water utilities are spending more to get mud out of sluggish rivers.

A severe drought in much of the state is entering its 18th month, and the costs are mounting -- even if it is too soon to tally them, experts agree.

The online Drought Monitor of the National Drought Mitigation Center shows ugly swaths of brown and red across the central and southern United States. The National Climatic Data Center said the country appears to be on course to top $1 billion in drought-related losses this year, although it's too soon for official figures.

There are no estimates for drought damage in Missouri. "It's yet to be seen," said Judy Grundler from the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Brent Bryant, executive vice president of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, said many ranchers may have to sell cattle prematurely or reduce their breeding stocks.

"Right now, people are hauling water and hay to their animals, which is incredibly costly. In some places, there's just not a lot of hay to be found," Bryant said.

Missouri is the second-leading state in the nation in the number of beef cows, with 2.16 million head of cattle, according to the Missouri Beef Industry Council in Columbia.

Farmers and ranchers are the most obvious victims of the drought. But costs come elsewhere, too, from lawn services idled by dormant grass to barge traffic restricted by lower rivers.

"Agriculture is badly affected, but this dryness is transcending into other sectors," said state climatologist Pat Guinan at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Guinan said drought has always been a part of the Missouri landscape. But the current pinch feels worse for two reasons.

One is the contrast to good rains in the 1990s, the wettest decade since records started being kept in 1895. The other is that four of the past five years have seen drought in large parts of the state during growing season.

The current drought is most severe in central, west and southwest Missouri, Guinan said. It started in March 2005, and despite some brief interruptions here and there never really let up.

Agronomy specialist Gerald Bryan, with the University of Missouri Extension office in Jackson, said sections of Southeast Missouri are suffering just as bad or worse as the rest of the state. "The showers and rains have been very spotty here. We're suffering from droughts in some of the area," he said.

Wednesday's afternoon thunderstorms dropped about an inch of precipitation in several areas of Cape Girardeau County, Bryan said.

Soil can hold about 2 inches of water for every foot. Bryan said crops need at least 2 inches of water per week.

Utilities also are among those feeling an impact.

The drought is creating short- and long-term expenses for Missouri American Water Co., the state's largest water utility that serves 460,000 residential and business customers.

In Joplin, which is breaking records for peak residential-customer demand for water, the utility says it plans to expand water-production facilities to keep up.

The St. Louis-based utility is a partner in a three-state effort to find new water sources for consumers in drought-stricken southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma.

Likely options include tapping Table Rock, Stockton and Grand lakes in Missouri and Oklahoma, said Greg Weeks, general manager of operations at Missouri American Water Co.

Short term, the utility is having to pay more to treat water for mud and dirt that tends to concentrate when rivers, creeks and other surface-water supplies are lower.

And because the ground is so dry, it's shrinking, causing distribution pipes to break. That's creating higher maintenance costs, Weeks said.

Missouri American hasn't sought a rate increase and says it has no plans to unless the drought persists.

Down the road, however, production expansions could result in higher rates.

Supplies still are adequate on the Missouri River, which is the state's primary water source, Weeks said.

Still, users are being asked to conserve.

Jefferson City customers are under orders to restrict use of water for lawns, gardens, swimming pools and car washing to allow the utility to recover from extremely high demand there.

"We weren't sure how people were going to react, but we're getting some positive feedback," Weeks said. "They know that water is a resource that needs to be protected."

Overall, the Missouri River reached record lows for July, said Mike Wells, deputy director for water resources for the Department of Natural Resources.

From July 25 to Aug. 3, the Coast Guard limited traffic between St. Louis and Boonville to barges that drafted less than 7 feet, effectively closing the river for more than a week.

As a result, three tow companies -- including an asphalt hauler that supplies many Kansas City-area construction companies -- decided not to travel, said Wells.

"They're not willing to come onto the river until they know they can navigate without rubbing," said Wells. "We just finally got enough water in the last few days so the companies feel comfortable."

On the Mississippi River, dredges are working to keep the channel a minimum of 9 feet deep.

On Wednesday, the channel at St. Louis was 13 feet, thanks to rain in Minnesota and the Corps of Engineers' release of water stored in dams near Alton, Ill.

Low water levels on the Mississippi prompted the Coast Guard last week to issue an advisory requiring barge operators to run fewer barges per tow, each with lighter loads.

"That doesn't sound like much, but five barges is a decrease of almost 12,000 tons of weight per tow," said Lynn Muench of American Waterways Operators, a national trade association for the tugboat, towboat and barge industry.

"That translates to between 250 and 300 trucks that they can't push. Obviously that increases costs or decreases profits."

Mark Knoy, president of MEMCO Barge Line, based in Chesterfield, said near-record-low water levels in the Mississippi River are putting some barge companies in the Missouri Bootheel out of business.

Knoy, who's been in business 30 years, said this year's drought isn't as bad as the one in 1988.

"This is a typical summer dry spell," he said. "It happens on a fairly regular basis."

Staff writer Jennifer Freeze contributed to this report.