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NATION'S MIDWEST RIVERS IN EMERGENCY STATE

WASHINGTON, DC - The Mississippi River -- the nation's largest artery for the shipment of bulk commodities such as coal, grain, petroleum and chemicals valued at more than $31 billion annually -- is at critically low levels as a result of recent drought, affecting water transportation of vital U.S. commerce. River barges, which carry these cargos essential to the U.S. economy, have faced severely restricted tow size and cargo capacity, run aground, and had to halt operations completely in some areas of the river where channels are too shallow to navigate when the Coast Guard closed sections of the river earlier this week. While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working around the clock to provide channel dredging to help alleviate the groundings and some water has been released from Upper Basin sources, river stages are predicted to drop an additional foot by the end of this week, the lowest depth in more than a decade.

Solutions to this critical problem include ensuring that adequate water resources within the Mississippi River System are made available to address this issue. During times of drought, water from the Missouri River accounts for as much as 88 percent of the water in the Middle Mississippi. Yet the Army Corps of Engineers is keeping Missouri River contributions to the Mississippi at traditionally low winter levels.

Current Missouri River alternatives under consideration would create a significant increase in low water situations more often in October and November, causing disruption and increased costs to farmers at a time when U.S. grain shipments are moving into world markets after harvest, unless the Administration restores long-term predictable water flow from the Missouri River into the Mississippi River. Waterborne commerce enables U.S. farmers to compete with lower-cost foreign products by making it cheaper to get goods to market.

Senator Christopher (Kit) Bond of Missouri agrees that water resources management should be improved. "Our nation's waterways should be viewed as a system, with each river in the system interdependent on the other. As we edge closer to a disaster on our waterways and a complete shutdown of the waterborne movement of essential commodities bound for export, it points up the need for better management of our water resources so that we have enough water for barge transportation during the critical agricultural export season. This is how we maintain our competitive edge in getting goods to market," he said. Congress also needs to assure the American people that the Midwestern jobs base is not jeopardized by changes to water resource allocation.

"Our nation and the world depend on our waterways to ship the goods we rely upon, such as coal for energy, grain for food production and chemicals for myriad uses," said Dennis Kirwin, President of Waterways Work!, a national campaign that promotes the value of the inland and coastal waterways. "The current state of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers puts commerce and future exports in jeopardy at a time when our country's economic recovery is at stake," he continued.

"The current state of the rivers has caused a dramatic increase in shipping costs, up 63 percent over the last two weeks," said Greg Guenther, an Illinois farmer and member of the National Corn Growers Association. "These higher costs reduce farmer income and cut into our ability to purchase supplies, equipment upgrades and fuel, as well as costing jobs in our community," he continued. River commerce on the Upper Mississippi supports more than 400,000 jobs including 90,000 manufacturing jobs in the Midwest.

The nation's barge and towing industry is the most efficient mode of transportation, moving 16 percent of the nation's freight for just two percent of the freight transportation cost, saving shippers and consumers more than $7 billion annually compared to alternate transportation modes. Also more environmentally sound, waterways transport handles cargo equal to 40 million trucks or 10 million rail cars each year.

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Waterways Work! is the national campaign to promote the positive contributions that America's ports and inland waterways system make to our nation's economy, environment, national security and quality of life. It is supported by more than 250 waterways carriers, shippers, port authorities, shipping associations and waterways advocacy groups from all regions of the country.