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Shipping industry struggles with Army Corps flow restriction on Mississippi

A coalition of environmental groups has filed two lawsuits against the EPA on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, seeking to limit nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico.
Christine Karim
/
Creative Commons
A coalition of environmental groups has filed two lawsuits against the EPA on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, seeking to limit nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico.

The US Army Corps of Engineers this week began shutting flow from a South Dakota reservoir which feeds into Mississippi River, just north of St. Louis. The overall lack of water is expected to cause big problems moving freight on the river.

 
The Army Corps is holding back water at the Gavins Point Dam in Yankton, S.D., to conserve for the next Missouri River shipping season. But the Mississippi River needs that water right now to keep the shipping channel at St. Louis least nine-feet deep.
 
Major General John Peabody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the Corps can’t act to benefit one party, at the expense of others“The truth is, without the dam you would probably have, basically a trickle at this time of year anyway, because we would have not storage capability.  So actually you’re getting more than you would have if not for the projects of the Corps of Engineers."
 
Compounding the issue of scarce water is the fact North Dakota’s leaders are eager to tap millions of gallons from those same reservoirs for use in the state’s oil fracking boom.

Adam grew up on a cherry farm in northern Michigan. He holds a BA in economics from Kalamazoo College. Adam's radio career began in 2003 at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. He went on to cut his teeth filing stories for Maine Public Radio. Before coming to St. Louis Public Radio in 2006, Adam was was an international journalism fellow at Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany. He has regularly filed features for various shows and networks including NPR, PRI, Marketplace and the BBC. He received a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year.
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