Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
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Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#2Hmm, the St Croix is low but not lower than historical lows from years past: https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=stlm5&wf...
(The St Croix is 1% of the total discharge of the Mississippi.)
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#3Current level: 10.52 ft. forecast has it at 7ft by end of October.
Record lows:
Low Water Records for Ohio River at Cairo
(1) -1.00 ft on 12/24/1871
(2) 0.30 ft on 12/30/1876
(3) 1.10 ft on 01/01/1877
(4) 2.00 ft on 12/31/1887
(5) 2.50 ft on 10/20/1897
(6) 2.90 ft on 11/21/1901
(7) 4.93 ft on 07/12/1988
(8) 5.80 ft on 12/31/1963
(9) 6.87 ft on 08/28/2006
(10) 7.10 ft on 01/17/1981
(11) 7.15 ft on 08/29/2012
(12) 7.20 ft on 08/08/2005
(13) 8.52 ft on 09/11/2000
(14) 8.72 ft on 09/19/2005
(15) 8.72 ft on 07/25/2012
(16) 9.10 ft on 02/12/2000
(17) 11.33 ft on 06/30/2012
(18) 11.63 ft on 10/16/2006
(19) 13.10 ft on 05/19/2000
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/water.php?wfo=pah&gage=ciri2
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#4If you ever have a chance, I highly recommend going near a port and watching operations.
I used to live near the Mississippi River in Iowa, and it was always impressive to see the barge traffic and think about the sheer volume of product moving. South of St. Louis, the barge tows can be up to 45 barges.
Visiting Savanah, Georgia and watching the ships come and go was also impressive. There's a bridge that was built in 1953, replaced in 1991, and is in consideration for replacement again because the ships keep getting larger.
I'll also recommend the Containers podcast, an 8 part series discussing global trade and why the ships keep getting bigger.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/containers/id120955917...
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#5How can the article not mention that it ebbs and flows? They're making it alarmist sounding when it's just the natural state of the river.
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#6Current level: 10.52 ft. forecast has it at 7ft by end of October. Record lows: Low Water Records for Ohio River at Cairo (1) -1.00 ft on 12/24/1871 (2) 0.30 ft on 12/30/1876 (3) 1.10 ft on 01/01/1877 (4) 2.00 ft on 12/31/1887 (5) 2.50 ft on 10/20/1897 (6) 2.90 ft on 11/21/1901 (7) 4.93 ft on 07/12/1988 (8) 5.80 ft on 12/31/1963 (9) 6.87 ft on 08/28/2006 (10) 7.10 ft on 01/17/1981 (11) 7.15 ft on 08/29/2012 (12) 7.20…
Since I wondered how a river can have a negative depth:
> A river's stage at a point (a gauge reading) is not an absolute measure of the depth of the water in the channel, rather it is a depth with respect to an historical Datum level. In summary, when a river gauge reads zero or in the negative numbers - it does not mean that the river has gone totally dry or is running below ground. It means that the gauge is reading at or below the agreed-upon zero level.
> Silt may deposit in the river channel over time (filling the channel up), or the channel bottom may be scoured out to a deeper level by strong currents.
> Still, the gauge zero datum levels are not changed to keep continuity.
https://www.weather.gov/ctp/NegativeRiverStages
So, these aren't depth, and apparently aren't even comparable.
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#7Wasn't it just flooding?
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#8It will be interesting to see how food waste statistics are influenced by these supply chain and inflation woes, as well as our interest in mono-cropping soy and corn.
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#9If you ever have a friend or family member who is trying to get around wetland conservation laws, they are contributing to the shrinking of our river systems.
Water retention capacity in upper watersheds directly contribute to average river flow, which is very easy to show by the behavior of streams. Deserts are self-reinforcing systems where the heat pushes clouds up or away from them. Wet, cool forests draw in more precipitation in. We don't really understand the processes yet, but we do know it's not a zero sum game of delaying (or 'stealing') water versus total system flow. This is most easily demonstrated for watersheds on the windward sides of mountains, due to snow pack, but forests and microbes both fiddle around with cloud cover in general.
As for restoring watersheds, we systematically removed the engineers that created the lush river systems of the US and Canada, namely the beaver, which once numbered at somewhere between 60 and 300 million animals in North America. We blame long term changes in rain patterns for the reduced river flow, but I strongly suspect that is the '3 Whys' trap of the Five Whys Process.
Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks
#10Current level: 10.52 ft. forecast has it at 7ft by end of October. Record lows: Low Water Records for Ohio River at Cairo (1) -1.00 ft on 12/24/1871 (2) 0.30 ft on 12/30/1876 (3) 1.10 ft on 01/01/1877 (4) 2.00 ft on 12/31/1887 (5) 2.50 ft on 10/20/1897 (6) 2.90 ft on 11/21/1901 (7) 4.93 ft on 07/12/1988 (8) 5.80 ft on 12/31/1963 (9) 6.87 ft on 08/28/2006 (10) 7.10 ft on 01/17/1981 (11) 7.15 ft on 08/29/2012 (12) 7.20…
Since I wondered how a river can have a negative depth: > A river's stage at a point (a gauge reading) is not an absolute measure of the depth of the water in the channel, rather it is a depth with respect to an historical Datum level. In summary, when a river gauge reads zero or in the negative numbers - it does not mean that the river has gone totally dry or is running below ground. It means that the gauge is readi…
And depending on sediment transport dynamics for a particular reach of the river, the depth could be higher or lower at a given stage (i.e., height above datum) today than at the same stage in the past.