Editorial: Hope Springs Eternal For Missouri Towing

Our wish that towing will soon return to the Missouri River may seem like the unwelcome appearance of a bad penny, but “hope springs eternal.” Ethanol seems to have a way of changing things.

Back in January, we reported that Frank Dooley, a Purdue University economist and transportation specialist, having studied the ethanol issue, predicted rough sledding for the state due to the high costs of keeping up with transportation needs. Dooley believes Indiana could become a corn-importing state. The state is expected to have a dozen operating ethanol plants within three years, producing a billion gallons of ethanol annually. To get this kind of output, Dooley estimates, will require 385 million bushels of corn.

Only last month, Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, told the Brownfield Network that Nebraska may be right behind Iowa as the nation’s No. 2 ethanol-producing state by year’s end.

The Nebraska Ethanol Board is working with the community college system and ethanol producers to get ahead of the need for skilled workers, Brownfield Network reported.

According to Sneller, hundreds if not thousands of jobs will be added in the next several years. He said the transportation issues created by the ethanol industry’s boom are also significant, and all available transportation modes will have to be utilized beyond their current capacity.

Just think, naysayers have been complaining about reduced Missouri River traffic for decades, but they did not foresee the coming of ethanol. Even though much corn grown in the Midwest is being shipped to the West Coast via rail, the emergence of ethanol plants will most likely impact that practice to a great degree.

Transport officials in every mode respond to transportation needs. Important examples are the progress of railroads across the West as that area of the nation was opened up to settlers. When the Indian nations were driven out in the 1800s, the railroads were able to move westward from the Mississippi, and soon the steamboats that served needs along the Missouri River became obsolete. They vanished, though not quite as quickly as the Pony Express vanished after telegraph lines were erected. But the Pony Express and steamboats were answers to immediate needs that had to be met.

The towing industry is not fated to be replaced by new and better methods. Much cargo is of a nature that it is too heavy to be moved by any other mode. Low-cost barge transportation makes it feasible to transport low-cost bulk products to the heartland at a cost that keeps consumer prices reasonable.

Meeting needs is not just the prerogative of transporters. A reading of river history makes it very clear that towns sprang up along the rivers to meet the needs of the growing population. When the westward movement began, smart entrepreneurs invaded the great Wisconsin pine forests to get lumber for homes, boatbuilding, etc. To produce the lumber, there had to be sawmills, and other bright entrepreneurs set up mill operations to meet the needs. And voila! Then came the raft boats—some companies operating dozens of them—to move the huge log rafts to river towns where mills could turn them into lumber for those booming communities.

The last time we looked at the map, we saw that Nebraska is bordered along its entire eastern side by the Missouri River. The head of Missouri River navigation is Sioux City, Iowa, which means that navigable water runs along most of the Nebraska border. So if it turns out that Nebraska needs corn or needs additional transportation services to deliver ethanol or byproducts, towing is one answer. Not only is it one answer, it is the cleanest answer.

Admittedly, Mother Nature’s assault on the Midwest has kept Missouri River stakeholders in stitches for upwards of a decade because of the low level of the river’s mainstem reservoirs. Even recent snows, while relieving some of the drought conditions, did not produce enough water to improve the reservoir releases. But that will change.

Towing on the Missouri is nothing new, and experienced operators are waiting in the wings to put that river back to work, so to speak. Midwest farmers who once depended on the low-cost transportation of fertilizer to Sioux City also would most likely welcome the return of the towboats and barges.

Just as the old-timers in the 1800s built shot towers, sawmills, cities and towns to meet the needs of the people, Nebraskans can add a few workable, relatively inexpensive river terminals that would enable ethanol producers to ship and receive by barge. Hope springs eternal!

The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)