Mississippi River Barge Crisis

December 22, 2012, is when it’ll go down…

The Mississippi River will hit a record low-water mark and barges could be completely halted for up to two weeks, perhaps even longer.

Jobs will be lost, food prices will rise. Overall, the economic impact will be felt everywhere.

You see, while the “dry season” is nothing new, it’s been 56 years since one has been followed by a drought of the magnitude we witnessed last summer. The result of this combination has pushed Mississippi’s levels so low that near the river’s midpoint, it may soon be too shallow for barges to operate safely.

And this, my friends, puts 20,000 jobs and billions of dollars in revenues at risk.

Senators representing those communities along the Mississippi have been seeking to get the Army Corp of Engineers to release more water from the Missouri River. But that’s not sitting so well with those who rely on the Missouri. As it is, the Mississippi has already pulled in nearly 80% of its water from the Missouri this year because of the drought. During a normal year, it’s only about 60%.

Some folks upriver are starting to get nervous…

In fact, officials from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Kansas sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that increasing the outflow of the Missouri’s water would undoubtedly have a negative impact on the people and many businesses in the states they represent, which are also suffering from the effects of drought.

But there’s something a little bigger at stake here, too…

That’s Fracking Water

While farmers have been quite vocal about their opposition to releasing more of the Missouri’s water, sitting quietly under the radar of most media outlets are the oil and gas producers that rely on the Missouri for fracking operations.

Right now, only a small amount of the Missouri is used for fracking, as much of the water for these operations has been taken from underground aquifers.

But North Dakota has been looking to use more of the Missouri for those operations in an effort to conserve what’s still left in those aquifers.

There’s no doubt about it: North Dakota’s booming economy can be traced directly to its oil and gas operations. The state is now projected to have a $1.6 billion budget surplus by next summer.

But at the end of the day, you can’t trade your drinking water supplies for oil.

The state’s water commission knows this, and that’s why officials have been pushing to tap the Missouri for more of its fracking operations. So it should come as no surprise that many folks, particularly in North Dakota, do not want to put their own supplies at risk in order to bolster the Mississippi.

$7 Billion at Stake

Despite opposition from those upriver, some water is still expected to be released from Missouri reservoirs while the Army Corps of Engineers begins to eliminate two rock pinnacles that are now impeding barge traffic. This is expected to preserve one particular 9-foot channel that can allow commercial navigation to continue — though it’s not expected to completely fix the problem, and the barge operators know this.

Bottom line: Last summer’s drought has really exposed the vulnerability of the Mississippi’s crumbling infrastructure.

Many are now seeing this is truly a problem of monumental proportions.

Garry Niemeyer, chairman of the National Corn Growers Association, recently commented on this reality: “… we’ve been trying to upgrade the locks and dams since 1993, and our federal government isn’t doing that. If we continue to not build our infrastructure, we’re going to lose our markets.”

According to a study commissioned by the Waterways Council, about $7 billion in cargo will stop moving between St. Louis and Cairo if the river closes this month.

The warnings have been loud and clear…

The number of lock and dam closures on the Mississippi has tripled since 2000. And without a serious injection of infrastructure spending, it’s only going to get worse.

Of course, now that the Mississippi is in full crisis mode — which puts the entire nation in crisis mode — I do believe that once this fiscal cliff nonsense gets worked out, the Mississippi will finally get the necessary funds for a much-needed facelift.

For investors, this could present some pretty sweet opportunities in the infrastructure space. We’ll keep you posted as these present themselves.

To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…

Jeff Siegel

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Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.

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