As the dry weather event that caused record low river levels persists, Mississippi River officials and port personnel are imploring folks to pray for rain.
Why?
Because during a time such as this — when the expense and perpetual flow of commerce is primarily reliant on the elements — there isn’t exactly an available remedy mankind can so easily furnish.
This time last month, the river was projected to hit record lows and on Oct. 25, it saw the lowest levels it had seen since 1964 at 5.5 ft., according to Mississippi Levee Board chief engineer, Peter Nimrod.
“Back in 1964, it was 6.7 feet and this year we kind of bottomed out at 5.5 and set a new record with 2 feet lower than the previous record,” he said. “It hung around at 5.5 for a while and then we had a pretty good rainfall event up north that jumped the river up a little bit the next two days so last Thursday, a week ago, it went up two feet from 5.5 to 7.5, which is awesome and now it’s kind of lingering around 7 ft.”
Nimrod noted the long range forecast indicates the river rising roughly 8 or 9 ft. and then dropping down a bit with no signs of going back to record low stages.
However, Nimrod pointed out, “It’s not looking like it wants to jump up to the point where you can just breathe a sigh of relief as well.”
While continued, albeit slow, movement on the river in the event of historically low stages is fortunate and has been made possible with lightly loaded barges, smaller towboats and carefully regulated one-way traffic, the situation is not remotely ideal given the projected month or so it will be before levels increase an additional 5 or 6 ft.
Nimrod attributed the continuous navigation of traffic on the river to the Army Corp of Engineers’ efforts such as its dredging operations and gave “kudos” to the towboat captains and pilots for navigating what is now a “very narrow highway” which is critical for all traffic passing through the Mississippi.
That being said, any kind of rainfall along the river is welcome.
Greenville Port director Tommy Hart was asked whether or not the status of the drought’s impact on the port had changed at all in the last month.
“It’s about in the same place I would say. It might have improved slightly as we had about a foot of increase in water levels. That’s not nearly enough, but it was enough that we could continue moving — slowly, but continue moving,” he said. “The overall impact of this dry water period and record low water has caused the costs of barge shipping to increase approximately 30-35%.”
An increase of 30% is far from modest and prompts concern for the economy.
“Rather than costing everyone more money, I think the issue is the lack of money that will go into our local economy and will have to go towards paying increased transportation costs,” Hart said further. “So the cash flow in the local economy will be reduced because incomes from farming in our region will have to pay a higher price for transportation than what they would ordinarily spend in a local area.”
Mayor Errick Simmons on Monday highlighted that very point during a Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) press conference for which he serves as co-chairman.
“In Greenville, slow movement of barge freight has substantially increased transportation costs when we are seeing higher than ever transportation costs due to the drought. More barges are needed because we’re loading at the gravel port half full due to low river levels,” said Simmons. “South of Greenville now has restrictions and dredging needs to be done every year or the Delta is out of business.”
He continued, “And of course when we’re out of business in an already disadvantaged and struggling area — whereas Greenville has a 38.6% poverty rate — our grain elevators, our grain companies and our truckers are all needed during this time of year to take us throughout the year regarding economic development and the income that circulates in our community. So dredging on the ports is vital for Greenville and the Mississippi Delta and this drought is having significant impact on transportation increases, costs and significant impact as it relates to municipal sales tax revenues and incomes.”
Simmons also highlighted droughts are much more dreaded than floods because the impacts of drought typically last longer, affect more of the economy and set regions up “for more damaging results from future storms.”
He added, “We will be profiling this drought at COP 27 in Egypt this month and making several announcements on improving resilience to drought for our corridor. “
According to Simmons, the MRCTI has developed seven policy proposals to be considered by the national drought resilience partnership:
1.) Award federal disaster declarations to states for drought;
2.) Allow cities to spend FEMA funds addressing drought impacts;
3.) Make drought mitigation a spending priority for Jobs Act grants;
4.) Develop national incentives for manufacturers to build-out water recycling;
5.) Allow for more adaptive multi-watershed management so river systems can be managed at basin scale to mitigate for climate impact;
6.) Allow farmers and land owners to be compensates for voluntarily rotating acreage out of irrigation to alleviate drought; and
7.) Make agricultural credits for climate mitigation available under TITLE II, Subtitle C of the Inflation Reduction Act available for drought resilience activities.
