Mississippi river could be impassable by Dec 10.

Huh???

You can add gas and heating fuel prices to the list too. This is serious!!!



Lawmakers press Obama for action on Mississippi River

Read more here: [link to www.kentucky.com]



Low water levels have made it difficult for the corps to maintain a 9-foot-deep and 300-foot-wide navigation channel for barges along the river, an economic lifeline that carries billions of dollars of agricultural products, coal, chemicals and petroleum.

shipment of $7 billion of goods... Grain producers, chemical companies, oil refineries and electric utilities all depend on the river. Some cargo could be diverted to rail and truck, but at greater cost to shippers and eventually consumers.

It is a big deal for barges. I've been writing about this topic for a long time. Most people have no idea that barges dramatically reduced trucking because of fuel costs and the high payload amounts. When the river is low, then the payload can't be high because it will hang and scrape on the river bottom. This means less than full loads and more of them. It causes a cascade delay.

Sure they can dredge to get traffic moving, as long as it's humanly possible to engineer it, but it might mean a lot of unloading and reloading on the other side of the low lying water level. Expensive, isn't it?

We're getting a double whammy too. The drought hammered the corn crop. A large portion was used for ethanol production. This means a high likelihood of increased fuel prices, right when we'll be using more trucking because of less barge use too.

Barges transfer coal for utility plants. If they can't get coal to them, they have to truck it in, and that's very expensive.

Salt is also brought in for areas that need more due to snow production.

Very little rain falls in Winter. If we have a drier Winter than normal, then the rivers could get very low.

Already the aquifers are very low, especially in the Ogallala region.

Well that should be good for the already fucked up economy...

Oh Great...Now its a water battle...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Members of the congressional delegations from the Dakotas, Kansas and Montana are urging President Barack Obama to deny requests to aid Mississippi River navigation by authorizing additional water releases from Missouri River dams.

[link to www.businessweek.com]

When the Nile Delta dried up for 100+ years....so did ancient Egypt.
Same goes for the Mayans.

With the economy the way it is....were are not much better off.
Perfect economic storm brewing....with a little help from our Muslim Marxist Dictator.

It was closed intermittently in August. Meaning they were adjusting traffic flow, not total stoppage.

They'll just offload the cargo north of the blockage, put it all on Trucks or trains, and haul it via land around the blockage... the reload it back onto more barges south of the blockage...

There will just be a brief delay in deliveries because of this.

This will be most relative to grain prices. Barges are a cheap form of transportation from grain hubs such as St. Louis and Kansas City, any disprution in that means those grains will have to be transported by rail or truck more than doubling shipping expenses.

Also, you would see an immediate jump in the contract prices of grains because of the shipping issues. A double whammy...

... and the annual flooding of the surrounding farmland provides the amazing fertility of the soil -- not unlike the processes of the Nile. If the drought persists, the farmland will degrade in fertility as well as the obvious drought consequences.

I live in Colorado, and we had a serious drought last summer. Funny thing is, in previous low rain years there would be water restrictions, I don't recall hearing any this summer. Our reservoirs are very very low, and so far snow pack is around 40& of normal. If we don;t get some moisture, and you are downhill from Colorado, next summer could be very very dry.

tavistock.

Some areas can't be dredged. As I understand, near Cairo there are 'rocks' that will scrap and tear the barges if the water is at nine feet or lower.

Food prices through the roof!

I don't know if it is just grains... in my small area close to the Mississippi, there are two coal loading facilties..one is rather large!..

Oh Great...Now its a water battle...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Members of the congressional delegations from the Dakotas, Kansas and Montana are urging President Barack Obama to deny requests to aid Mississippi River navigation by authorizing additional water releases from Missouri River dams.

[link to www.businessweek.com]