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| http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef017743716d01970d-pi |
The mighty Mississippi River is running low and leaving cargo barges high and dry.
As of Tuesday, America's main aquatic artery was flowing at the negative 6.2 mark on the gauge in Memphis, Tennessee, according to the NOAA's RiverWatch system. The river is forecast to drop to negative 8.5 by August 8. Negative numbers mean the river is well below its average depth.
The river is nearing record lows, exposing treacherous sandbanks where river craft can run aground. The shriveled river also leaves less maneuvering room for barges to pass each other.
Docks are harder to get to now that the river is receding. Even if a ship can get to its destination unloading proves difficult since the ships now float below normal docking height.
"Captains and crews know how to navigate through waters high or low," Ingram Barge Company spokesman Keel Hunt told the AP. "In a time like this, however, it's a particular challenge because in some cases it's just very difficult to move a barge full of products."
A low river means high shipping costs. Although no stretches of the Mississippi are expected to close and barges are managing to get through, they are being slowed down and can carry less cargo.
Higher shipping costs could contribute to the problem of increasing food bills. The drought affecting more than half of the U.S. has already pushed up corn and other food prices as crops wither in the sun.
The Mississippi River running low is causing a problem for the shippers but, more importantly for the everyday consumers. As if the economy isn't already bad enough, food prices will increase because of the difficulty to navigate through the low river. What do you all this cause this? Was it human interaction or nature just take a turn? What efforts can be made to restore the Mississippi River's normal height?
This article is interesting to read in light of recently having watched the movie "Flow: For the Love of Water". In this movie, the depletion of natural water sources is discussed at lenght. The movie not only focuses on oil refineries dumping waste into rivers such as the Mississippi, but also sheds light on the privatization of water and how companies such as Nestle are pumping water from rivers in Michigan for free and selling to to consumers for a profit. The issue on hand is not only the consumers and the high prices but also the ecological damage done to the Mississippi River and how these low levels are not natural. This article sheds further light on the issues discussed in the film. These issues will not diminish they will only get more grave if we continue to ignore them and realize that we are constantly damaging our natural water sources.
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