At one point last week, more than 2,000 barges filled with hundreds of millions of dollars of cargo sat idle on the Mississippi River as Army Corps of Engineers dredgers cleared a navigable course. In some areas of the river, cargo loads have been limited because heavier barges would ground in shallow channel draught.
According to a report in USA Today, the low water levels in the Mississippi River have caused 25 separate closures to traffic since October 11th. Each stoppage is estimated to cost $300 million per day to the US economy, and could devastate some markets: 60% of the nation’s corn and soybean exports rely on the Mississippi to get to customers.
Barges are instructed to carry just 65% of their capacity to navigate available channels. Areas that previously had 30 or 40 feet of water now have ten. At capacity, a barge can carry around 70 tractor-trailers’ worth of products.
Relief will not likely come soon. The autumn months are traditionally dry months in the Mississippi River Basin. According to NOAA, the drought impacting the river will carry into next year, meaning the river won’t likely be refreshed in the spring by snow melt. And the continued drought also makes the inevitable “wet season” all the more likely to cause devastating flooding.