In the middle of the ever-narrowing Mississippi River, a barge tows a huge metal-sided suction head along the riverbed to remove sediment from the channel.
The crew of the Hurley Skip Dredge has been working around the clock for months to deepen the river so boats and barges can pass through.
“We’ve been working almost non-stop since last fall from New Orleans to St. Louis, Missouri,” said Captain Adrian Pirani, standing on the bridge.
For the second year in a row, water levels in North America’s largest river have fallen to record lows due to a prolonged drought. Locals say they’ve never seen it this bad.
From the Great Lakes in the north to Louisiana in the south, the majestic Mississippi River has been transformed.
Factories have taken over the newly exposed riverbanks and saltwater is pouring in from the Gulf of Mexico. Farmers who depend on the river to transport their products are frustrated as they watch the traffic jam.
Authorities are doing what they can to make sure the river stays navigable, and that’s where the Hurley, a dredge operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, comes into play.
The dredge is currently on its third excavation at the same site near Memphis, Tennessee. The dredge scrapes and sucks silt from the bottom of the river and sprays it onto the riverbank.
Pirani said he works long hours, starting with “making sure commerce doesn’t stop.”
But the job is closer to home.
He told AFP, “I come from a family of farmers on the other side of the river. So this is personal …… for me. I will do everything I can to keep the river flowing.
Unusable docking stations
For farmers across a wide swath of the Midwestern United States, the Mississippi River is an integral part of their transportation network.
But drought has narrowed and shallowed the river, limiting transportation capacity.
The bottleneck came at a bad time: in early fall, farmers were busy harvesting soybeans and corn. With limited inland waterway transportation capacity, they had to scramble to get rid of a huge backlog of inventory.
“I’ve got to figure out how to get it somewhere, but it’s going to cost me more money,” said Jim Miller, a farmer who grows soybeans and corn in Illinois.
“We’ve had a tough year due to high input costs and low commodity prices, and now it’s happening again.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that low water levels in the Mississippi River are costing the U.S. economy $2 billion a month.
The drought is also having a devastating impact on wildlife. Fish and other aquatic life are struggling to survive in shrinking waters.
The Mississippi River is a vital artery for the U.S. economy and environment. This drought is a stark reminder of the fragility of our ecosystems and the need for urgent action to address climate change.