Mississippi River cities brace for still-rising floodwaters
The river is now forecast to crest in Cairo, Illinois, at up to 54 feet on Thursday, April 10 — just over major flood stage — and the river could stay above 50 feet for about two weeks.
Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk
There are 38 articles by Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk :
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April 2025
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Metro
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March 2025
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Downtown Mississippi River mayors lobby for more flood funding
While the Mississippi River group is not shying away from using words like “climate” and “resilience” in its policy goals, members are uncertain how much federal support they can count on, given recent government cutbacks.
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February 2025
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Metro Lower Mississippi’s largest ecosystem restoration gets go-ahead but not funding
The $63.7 million project would restore forests and wetland habitats along 39 miles of the Mississippi River.
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December 2024
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Metro Decades after it disappeared, wild rice is blooming again on the Upper Mississippi
For some, the resurgence of the wild rice is a source of wonder. For others, it’s more of a nuisance, making it hard to maneuver boats through areas that were once easily passable.
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Metro As salt water flows up Mississippi, the region looks for solutions
This is the third year in a row that salt water from the Gulf of Mexico has crept up the Mississippi River. This phenomenon, known as salt water intrusion, previously only happened about once per decade.
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November 2024
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City of Memphis Mississippi River towns seek to fund flood-damage recovery
Mayors along the Mississippi River have watched as intensifying rain storms and floods wreak havoc. This fall, the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative announced a new pilot program to help river towns better recover.
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October 2024
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Metro It’s not a matter of if but when: Midwest states prepare for next big earthquake along New Madrid fault
A small earthquake brought tremors across the Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri border earlier this month, a reminder that much of the Midwest sits on a major fault line, which saw one of the most destructive earthquakes in history in 1812.
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September 2024
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Metro As Delta towns lose population, culture and history disappear with them
Corona, Tennessee, is one of 35 border communities that, over time, have been cut off from their state by the Mississippi River. Located in unincorporated Tipton, it’s a two-hour drive from the rest of county.
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August 2024
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Food Invasive carp are surging in the Mississippi River. Can people be convinced to eat them?
Four species of Asian carp have firmly established a home in the Mississippi River basin, and experts say they are here to stay. But one way to get the carp population under control seems relatively simple — eat them.
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February 2024
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About Town Billions of cicadas will emerge in the Mississippi River basin this spring
Starting in late April, two major broods of cicadas will emerge together in the U.S. for the first time in 221 years. Memphis, however, won’t see cicadas outside of our normal ones until 2028.
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Neighborhoods Renewed legislation aims to protect Mississippi River amid environmental worries
“Since (this legislation) was first introduced (in 2021), the conditions of the world we live in just keep showing us that there is an urgent need to address these problems, and they’re not solving themselves,” said the executive director of the Mississippi River Network.
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January 2024
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Metro Midwest snowfall could bring drought relief to Mississippi River basin
“We have some huge rainfall deficits that have built up, not only over the last year but the last few years,” said the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub.
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Metro How clean is the upper Mississippi River? Report finds improvement but emerging threats
The upper Mississippi River is getting saltier but concentrations of most metals have decreased.
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December 2023
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City of Memphis As climate risks increase, Mississippi River towns look to each other for solutions
The past few years have brought wild fluctuations between flooding and drought, bringing more stress to the communities nestled along the Mississippi’s 2,350 miles.
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Metro Nonstop dredging kept the Mississippi River open this year
But moving mountains of sand during historic low water levels creates its own problems.
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Downtown The Mississippi River is central to America’s story. Why doesn’t it get more love?
The Mississippi River is a big deal. One of the world’s great rivers, it hosts an abundance of wildlife habitat and provides drinking water for almost 20 million people. But it seems to carry less reverence than other iconic water bodies across the country.
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Neighborhoods Climate report indicates dire future for Mississippi River basin
Within the contiguous U.S., temperatures have risen by 2.5°F since 1970, compared to a global average rise of about 1.7°F over the same period.
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November 2023
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Metro Farm conservation programs offer solutions to climate threats, if farmers can get funded
The Johnson family is raising cattle on about 15 of the 200 acres they own in Mississippi. During long spells without rain, the grass dries up, and the Johnsons have to buy hay. Then the pond dries up and they have to use a hose from the house to water the cows.
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Transportation & Logistics Mississippi River drought expected to last through winter
Since June, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent $38 million maintaining the Mississippi River channel, mostly through dredging the equivalent of 5,000 Olympic-sized pools of sediment.
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August 2023
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Metro The Mississippi River’s floodplain forests are dying. The race is on to bring them back.
Floodplain forests play a pivotal role in the river ecosystem – creating wildlife habitat, improving water quality, storing carbon and slowing flooding. But they’re disappearing.
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June 2023
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Shelby County Wildfire smoke a reminder climate change is ‘on our doorstep now’
As the Shelby County Health Department cautions sensitive groups to reduce outdoor air exposure on Friday, June 9, due to smoke from Canadian wildfires, some scientists question whether the whole idea of “wildfire season” still applies.
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Transportation & Logistics Does the Mississippi River have rights?
The Great Plains Action Society’s Walk for River Rights was the centerpiece of a three-day summit last month for organizers from in the Mississippi River basin, who, among other things, want to grant the river legal standing.
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May 2023
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State Government Mississippi River shipping infrastructure is aging. Who should pay for the repairs?
Traffic is increasing, and the locks and dams have aged far past their life expectancy. They slow barges down, and shippers and commodity groups fear a breakdown on the horizon.
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Transportation & Logistics As the trucker shortage deepens, some groups try to make it easier to become a driver
“COVID really kind of kicked the baby boomers out,” said one industry insider, “and now that we had such a huge exodus of them, there’s just nobody to replace ’em.”
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Metro As road salt washes away, the Mississippi River gets saltier
Unlike other pollutants, chloride doesn’t break down in water over time. In other words, once it’s in, there’s no getting it out — and just a teaspoon of salt can pollute five gallons of water forever.
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