Weekly News Summary For August 29–September 4:
Residents of the Midwest waited for spring showers and summer storms that never came, and as August comes to a close, the lack of water in the region has brought on a drought with no relief in sight.
Corn farmers are expecting a lower yield as a result and barge companies are experiencing load and tow restrictions and reduced drafts on almost all major waterways.
With the end of the drought nowhere in sight, Dave Sehrt, senior vice president and chief operations officer for Ingram Barge Company jokingly added, "I am confident in one thing, that Tropical Storm Katrina will bring much needed rain to the Mississippi and Ohio valleys."
Nicole Dalrymple, spokeswoman for the St. Louis Engineer District, said the St. Louis gauge on the Mississippi River has been hitting daily lows recently. Strong storms through the St. Louis region in the past 10 days brought the gauge up a little bit, but the persistent drought is estimated to keep that figure volatile.
In order to combat the low water, Dalrymple said the St. Louis Engineer District began dredging two weeks earlier. As usual, Dalrymple said the district relied upon towboat operators’ feedback on problem areas and dredge surveys of historically low areas.
Unfortunately, Dalrymple said water will become even tougher to come by in the fall months….
A study by the Tulsa and Little Rock Engineer District recommends a three-part plan for improving navigation and flood control along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS). The plan includes navigation channel maintenance, changing the management of the river’s flows, and deepening the channel to 12 feet for the entire 445-mile length of the system.
The study identified a total project cost of $166.4 million and a benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.8 to 1.
The costs of the plan are all related to the 12-foot channel component: the associated costs include new dikes and jetties, $38.98 million; dredging and rock removal, $30.7 million; construction of dredge disposal areas, $31.6 million; and environmental mitigation, $23.7 million, according to the study’s executive summary.
Mitigation elements include relocation of disposal areas to avoid valuable aquatic habitat, dike and revetment notching, relocation of mussels, backwater channel improvement, and monitoring.
The Corps noted that approximately 90 percent of the MKARNS is already 12 feet deep over at least a portion of the channel width.
The flow-management feature of the recommendation involves managing the system to limit periods of sustained high flows. The recommended plan involves slowing the releases from flood storage in upstream reservoirs, resulting in a more stable river flow throughout the year, which allows barge operators to schedule more barges per tow and operate more efficiently….
Despite the cooperative planning group working toward an agreement about several key aspects on the Missouri River spring rise reaching an impasse on August 19, all is not lost, according to Northwestern Engineer District spokesman Paul Johnston.
The group had met three times prior in an attempt to reach a consensus of what would make up a spring rise, as mandated by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The fact that the groups, (such as environmental groups, state and federal officials and navigation interests) were able to meet after a decade of feuding, was a success, he said.
"To ask a group, who, after more than a decade, had disagreed, to work together on this contentious issue (is quite an undertaking)," he said. "They really stuck with the process and had confidence in it. They really built trust relationships."
One key aspect of the spring rise that did reach a consensus was what the spring rise would look like….
History was made this month when the Corps of Engineers’ mv. Mississippi made its first Ohio River inspection tour.
The inland waterways’ largest towboat normally conducts its annual high- and low-water inspection tours along its namesake river as the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) members get a firsthand look at the locks and other transportation and flood-control structures for a report to the president and Congress. The commission was created by an Act of Congress in 1879. Its seven members are nominated by the president of the United States and are confirmed by the Senate.
Several commissioners boarded the 241-foot-long vessel at Huntington, W.Va., on August 14 with scheduled stops at Cincinnati and Louisville prior to arriving at Paducah on August 19. Following the Paducah stopover, during which the vessel was open for public tours, the commission continued on to Cairo, Ill., for a public meeting on August 22. Throughout the trip, the commissioners were assessing navigation, environmental and flood-control projects and speaking with local politicians and industry executives who boarded during the scheduled stops.
Aboard the Mississippi when it arrived at Paducah’s public landing were several MRC members, ranking Corps officers, invited local public officials and industry executives who had boarded the vessel at Kentucky Lock earlier that morning for a close-up look at the construction activities underway to add a larger, 1,200-foot lock chamber adjacent to the outmoded 600-foot facility….
Magnolia Marine Transport Company, Vicksburg, Miss., and Nichols Propeller Company have begun construction of a new 3,000 hp retractable pilothouse towboat. Dennis "Dino" Ross Jr., vice president of marine engineering with Magnolia Marine, and Joe Nichols, owner of Nichols Propeller, started the project after signing a contract in mid-June.
The boat will be powered by 3512B Caterpillar engines with Haley HRV 1711 hydraulic gears. Magnolia Marine has used this combination on one of its repowered boats with great success, Ross said.
The boat will be named Mr. Lampton, after Lampton brothers Leslie III, Lee, Bill and Robert. When the boat is completed, it will increase Magnolia’s fleet of boats to seventeen….
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.)
