FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 12, 2005
Contact: Spence Jackson or Jessica Robinson, (573)751-0290
Blunt asks Corps of Engineers to Protect Navigation on Mississippi River
JEFFERSON CITY—Gov. Blunt today sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Army John Paul Woodley, Jr., asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take additional actions to ensure that navigation on the Mississippi River is not interrupted.
Blunt told Woodley that persistent drought conditions coupled with reduced releases from the Missouri River Mainstream Reservoirs have caused Mississippi River flows at St. Louis to reach alarmingly low levels. The navigation industry has already experienced economic losses this summer due to low flows on the Mississippi River and the U.S. Coast Guard has imposed navigation restrictions such as light loading and limits on tow size.
Blunt is asking the Corps to use the Missouri River Reservoir system to provide support for Mississippi River navigation in addition to the emergency dredging that is already taking place. The Flood Control Act of 1944 gives the Secretary of the Army the authority to manage the Missouri River Reservoir System for navigation as a whole. This authority is not limited to navigation on the Missouri River alone.
Storage in the Missouri River Reservoir System is adequate to supplement flows on the Mississippi River which Blunt says the Corps must do if navigation is to be maintained. The Corps own economic analysis shows that the suspension of navigation on the Mississippi River can cause approximately $6.5 million per day in economic damages.
"It is vitally important that river traffic on the Mississippi be allowed to move unabated," Blunt said. "Missouri’s farm families and other businesses depend on effective river transit as does our state’s economy. The Corps has the authority to provide relief and I ask that they do so quickly."