As if anyone contemplating the Great Loop this summer doesn’t have enough problems, now it turns out that both the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers are starting to dry up – for the second straight year.
In Cairo, Illinois, where the two rivers join, water levels dropped more than 6 feet last week, and they’re forecast to fall 4 feet more by the end of July. That would push the Ohio into its official low stage, where barges can run aground and the shipping channels narrow.
In St. Louis, the Mississippi could fall another 3 feet by the end of the month, and in Memphis it could drop 6 feet, pushing it too to the low category.
Right now about two-thirds of the Midwest is in a draught, the worst in a decade. Rain levels have been lower than normal for the second consecutive year.
Last week the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building a salt water sill across the Mississippi at mile 64, near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, designed to keep saltwater out of the river. This will be the first time that the Corps has built the sill in two straight years. The sill will naturally erode when the Mississippi returns to the flow levels required to push the saltwater wedge back down the river to the Gulf of Mexico.
Captains of recreational boats will need to be extra careful in navigating the Mississippi and the Ohio during the draught conditions, leaving extra room for passing commercial tugs if the channels are narrowed or changed. They also will need to check ahead to see if marinas and fuel docks are affected by the low water conditions.
Cruisers on the Great Loop already have been forced to change their plans, since three locks on the Illinois Waterway connecting Chicago to St. Louis have been closed for repairs for 120 days from June 1 to September 30 for major repairs. Loopers can wait until after the September 30 opening to cruise there, but the weather can be quite unpredictable that late in the season. Read more:
https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/3455897/usace-begins-construction-of-mississippi-river-saltwater-barrier/
