Missouri River water levels to drop as drought continues

Oct. 30—Drought is expected to continue in the Missouri River basin, bringing down water levels and bottom lines.

According to the National Weather Service, 75% of the Missouri River basin, which stretches from the Rocky Mountains in Montana to St. Louis, is in a drought, and forecasts show it continuing through the winter with above-average temperatures and less precipitation.

"We're lower than we would normally be this year, depending on where you're at on the river, and a lot lower here in Missouri," said John Remus the chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. "We're quite a bit lower than we would normally be this time of year just because the whole basin, particularly in Missouri, is dry."

The dry and warmer forecast leads to less runoff — six million acre-feet less than the yearly average. All of these conditions culminate in historic low water levels for the Missouri River.

"By the end of November, you're going to start seeing a fairly substantial drop off in the stages as we cut our navigation flows support, so it's going to be a low flow, very similar to what was last winter or and maybe even a little bit lower than that," Remus said.

Transport 360, a St. Joseph port established in 2018, has seen some slow years, but 2022 is worse than expected. The low water levels force companies to send fewer and lighter barges.

Jason Laipple, the general manager at Transport 360, said usually companies average about six barges a year but in 2022 the port is only seeing about three. And the barges that do come to the port are carrying about 300 to 400 tons less than usual.

"It cuts down on your profits," Laipple said. "It's just like trucking or even rail cars, the more you can haul, the cheaper your load is, so this increases our cost a little bit."

It also impacts local businesses and the community. Laipple said this year could be big for grain exports but it all depends if the water levels hold or increase. On the flip side, the change in barge traffic has nearly tripled the use of rail transport.

"People being concerned about the river levels, the rail has increased probably threefold from what it has been in the last three years, so we've been extremely busy on rail," Laipple said.

It's hard to predict future forecasts but droughts aren't uncommon to the Corps of Engineers. They dealt with a significant one for about eight years in the early 2000s. It's why Remus said the Corps of Engineers won't tweak its water control manual based on climate change because the system is designed to operate during an extended drought.

"Instead of waiting until the reservoir is empty to do conservation measures, we started doing water conservation measures at the beginning of the drought," Remus said. "We're far more resilient than some other systems that wait until it gets dire before they start taking steps."

Quinn Ritzdorf can be reached at quinn.ritzdorf@newspressnow.com