Low water levels bedevil lower Mississippi

Washington (Platts)--30Aug2006

Low water levels are typical this time of year on the lower Mississippi River,
but lower-than-normal levels are affecting barge traffic and played a role in
three tugboats grounding last week near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a US Coast
Guard lieutenant told Platts.

Though he didn't have precise estimates, Public Affairs Officer Lt. Todd
Peterson said Tuesday that the section of the river that was tied up, between
mile markers 263 and 267, sees a lot of coal traffic. The worst grounding,
involving the towboat Noble C. Parsonage that ran aground early Thursday at
mile marker 265.5, required dredging work that shut down river channels for
several days (PCT 8/29). The Parsonage was pushing 25 barges loaded with grain
and coal.

The water level is "the lowest I've seen it, but I've only been here for two
years," Peterson said. Lower Mississippi traffic needs rain from the Ohio
River Valley and Mississippi River Valley to raise the water level. "The Cairo
[Illinois water level] gauge is starting to rise, but I don't know how high
it's going to rise," Peterson said. "Everybody watches the Cairo gauge
downriver."

Along the Ohio River and in the Tennessee Valley, there's also been talk of
much needed additional rain, said Norb Whitlock, executive vice president for
government affairs for American Commercial Barge Lines. People working on the
rivers were watching as Ernesto developed, anticipating that the storm could
bring rain to the Ohio Valley, he said.

Back on the Mississippi, at 7 am Tuesday, dredging was complete, and a channel
was opened for one-way traffic, Peterson said. The safety zone was shortened
to between mile markers 264 and 266, he said, or a two-mile stretch of the
river.

"There were five north and five south-[bound barges in queue Tuesday] morning,
and they were cleared within an hour or two," Peterson said. The Coast Guard
cutter Greenbrier was supposed to be on the scene at 1 pm central time Tuesday
to reposition some buoys. "The channel is now 650 feet wide, and the minimum
depth is probably 16 feet as of right now," he said as of early Tuesday
afternoon. "There's nothing in the river right now pushing more than 12 feet
of draft."

Peterson agreed that low water levels led to the three tugs grounding within a
short time of each other. Two of the tugs put back in the water without any
problem, but the Parsonage grounding was more of a problem.

What led to the Parsonage grounding, Peterson surmised, was that a northbound
tug displaced a buoy, disorienting the southbound Parsonage, which then
grounded. Then, the river current twisted the tug onto the sandbar. No
injuries and no pollution occurred, he said.

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