Drought is crushing the Mississippi River and threatening to disrupt US food exports

Drought in the central US is shrinking the Mississippi River, causing dam rates to rise and threatening to destroy shipments of everything from corn to gasoline.

Dry conditions in the Ohio River basin, which feeds the Mississippi, worsened already low water levels on the larger river, said David Welch, a hydrologist at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center. The Mississippi, a critical pipeline that carries food, energy and steel supplies to global markets, typically sees lower levels this time of year.

“It’s at low enough stages that the barge industry and the shipping industry has to be sensitive to how much draft, how much load they can put on the barges” to prevent ships from running aground, Welch said.

Barge rates originating from an area between Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Louis were $34.15 a ton in the week ended Aug. 27, up 19 percent from the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The rates in St. Louis were $24.62 a tonne, up 17% from a week earlier.

The recent trend of falling water levels in the Mississippi is bad news for U.S. soybean and grain producers, according to Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soybean Transportation Coalition. Barge companies already announce draft limits and how many vessels can be towed, he said.

While Mississippi River levels are still well above last year’s lows, the drought underscores how extreme weather is putting the world’s most vital waterways at risk. Over the past two years, dry conditions on the Mississippi have created bottlenecks during the busiest times of the year to ship grain, forcing farmers to look for alternatives and putting upward pressure on already high global food prices. This year, low water levels in Brazil’s Amazon are also putting crop shipments there at risk.

Read more: Shrinking Mississippi River slows US food exports when world needs them most

In addition to the railroad’s recent problems, including a one-day strike in Canada, “receding water levels on the Mississippi River are serving as an impediment to the profitability of farmers,” Steenhoek said. “This coincides with a large harvest projected for 2024.”

Shipments of crude oil and petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel could also be affected, although shipments of crude by barge and tanker have declined over the past decade as more pipelines are built. Last year, about 36,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products were transported between the Midwest and the Gulf Coast. This is significantly lower than the peak of 80,787 barrels in 2013.

The shriveled Mississippi also endangers drinking water. When its level is low, the river doesn’t have enough strength to keep saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico from flowing upstream and contaminating supplies for cities in southeast Louisiana. Last month, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would build an underwater sill, or barrier, to hold back saltwater for a record third year in a row.

Welch said water levels will likely remain low or worsen because there is little rain in the forecast for the next few weeks.

Parts of West Virginia and Ohio along the Mississippi are in extreme drought, the US Drought Monitor said. A larger area encompassing parts of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky is abnormally dry. And the drought is also hitting states along the lower Mississippi.

“This is kind of a seasonal dry spell,” Welch said. “We don’t see much to change the situation.”

Photo: Low water levels on the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee, US, Monday, November 7, 2022.

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