News

Water levels continue to fall in the lower Mississippi River

A National Weather Service hydrologist says water levels along the lower Mississippi River are expected to continue to fall.

Mary Lamm tells Brownfield that the same problems that were seen on the river this time last year will likely reappear soon.

“Maybe not quite at the lowest levels that we had last year, because we set record levels last year, but I think we’ll see a lot of the same problems that we had with lower levels last year.”

Grain barge movements have slowed this month. For the week ending October 19, the USDA says grain barge movements were 19% lower than the previous week and 14% lower than the same period last year. But Max Fisher, chief economist for the National Grain and Feed Association, says the Army Corps of Engineers is still flirting.

“We continue to ask the Corps to do more dredging to create channels for barges where, even with lower water levels, we keep those barges moving.”

And he says more rain would help. Lamm says there is some rain in the forecast later this week along the Mississippi River, but she says it can go either way.

“It could be a failure or we could end up with three-quarters of an inch, but even half an inch doesn’t do much.”

Lamm says river levels in Memphis are expected to drop to -10 feet later this week.