There are 32 articles by Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk :
Our climate that is growing hotter and wetter — and more prone to dumping massive rains and flash flooding on communities whose creeks, streams and drainage systems are not equipped to handle such volatile waters.
After floods hammered St. Louis and eastern Kentucky this summer, the Ag & Water Desk wanted to know: Is rainfall increasing in the Mississippi River basin?
As increased rainfall and repetitive flooding strain aging infrastructure in many towns, residents along the Mississippi River ask the same question: Do we pack up and move out? When it rains: Mississippi River basin gets wetter as climate change brings extreme rain, floodsRelated story:
Drought is affecting the region even as climate change-induced increases in rainfall amount and intensity have been documented.
“Low water can have as great a cost, or greater, than high water,” Strickland said. “We have all these tools at our disposal for floods, but very few for droughts.”
This fall’s drought could be a harbinger of challenges ahead for the Mississippi River shipping industry.
A new multi-year report from the U.S. Geological Survey found the range of black carp in the Mississippi River basin now includes the entirety of the river, from New Orleans to the southeastern edge of Iowa.
What’s at stake in the case is the federal jurisdiction over the nation’s most valuable natural resource: water.
Some of the “forever chemicals” that scientists have linked to various health risks were found at five locations along the Mississippi River in Louisiana at levels well above the EPA’s most recent guidance, according to a new report.
Pumping water from the Mississippi River to drought-stricken western states is an option, but an expensive one.
A plume of chemical contaminants is traveling along the Ohio River at about one mile per hour and will eventually enter the Mississippi River.
While emissions from sectors such as energy production have fallen in the past few decades, those from agriculture — especially livestock and corn — are growing in most places.
PFAS are a class of more than 12,000 human-made compounds. They accumulate in the environment and human bodies over time and don’t easily degrade, which is why some call them “forever chemicals.”
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
But moving mountains of sand during historic low water levels creates its own problems.
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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