Coast Guard seeks Missouri River user comments on navigation

The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Upper Mississippi River is conducting a Waterways Analysis Management System (WAMS) study of the Missouri River between January 8th and April 8th, 2015.

The Missouri River study includes the navigable waters from Sioux City, Iowa to St. Louis, Mo. and specifically targets the navigation channel, marking of the navigation channel, and commerce.
The study will include looking at waterborne commerce and safe commercial and recreational navigation with a focus on the existing aids to navigation in Missouri River system. The studies are conducted periodically to better understand the user's needs and facilitate safe and effective waterways.

Click here for the pdf User Survey, which must be submitted by April 10, 2015.

Any interested company or individual wishing to provide recommendations on existing or additional aids to navigation in this area, participate in a user survey, or receive further information should contact Sector Upper Mississippi River Waterways Management by April 10th, 2015. Waterways Management can be reached at SUMRWaterways@uscg.mil or by calling 319-520-8556.

Some of the aspects addressed by WAMS are:

•           Are all the aids necessary?

•           Should aids be added, changed or removed?

•           Is the right aid being used for the job?

•           Are the aids marked in a correct and visible manner?

•           Are these aids being used properly by both the Coast Guard and the waterway users?

Coast Guard Sector Upper Mississippi River will hold a public listening session from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on FEBRUARY 25, 2015 to present, and receive feedback on the Missouri River Waterways Analysis and Management System (WAMS) study. 

The listening session will be held at the Jerry Litton Visitor Center, located at Smithville Lake, 16311 DD Hwy, Smithville, MO 64089.

Additionally, any interested company or individual wishing to submit comments on existing or additional aids to navigation in this area, participate in a user survey, or receive further information can do so via the user survey available HERE. The completed questionnaire must be submitted no later than April 10, 2015 and may be emailed to sumrwaterways@uscg.mil or faxed to 314-269-2742, ATTN: Waterways Management.

It is the intent of Coast Guard Sector Upper Mississippi River to collect comments and materials from this listening session, along with navigation surveys, and other information to establish and preserve the reasonable needs of navigation on this river. For more information, please contact Sector Upper Mississippi River Waterways Waterways Management at SUMRWaterways@uscg.mil

Updated forecast on Gavin's releases - river now closed upstream of Glasgow

Two little pieces of just released news, and some more details on levees and the threat to US65:

1. The Corps has released more details on their forecast for Gavin's Point releases. On July 30, releases will be reduced from 160,000 cfs to 155,000. On August 1, they will be reduced to 150,000. Heavy rains could still affect this forecast.

2. The Coast Guard has extended the closure of the Missouri River to all traffic from the Gavin's Point Dam to the Glasgow bridge at river mile 226.3.

3. Snowpack continues to melt. Here's the latest: The snow above Fort Peck peaked at 141% of normal and is now down to 6% of normal.  The snow in the reach between Fort Peck and Garrison (primarily the Yellowstone basin) peaked at 136% and is now down to 4%. The snow in the North Plate basin pecked at 150% of Normal and is currently down to less than 10% and the snow pack in the South Platte Basin peaked at 150% of Normal and the melting in this reach is complete.

4. From Tom Waters of the Missouri Levee & Drainage District Assoc.: The Root Levee breached early this morning.  This levee is located in Southern Carroll County in Missouri.  The breach is 250-33 feet long.  The levee is part of a system of levees, which includes the following levees:  Wakenda Levee, Sambo Slough Levee, and the Farmers Levee.  Combined this system protects around 22,000 acres and US Highway 65 south of Carrollton, Missouri.

Funds sought for river gauges

Originally published on April 6, 2011 in the Omaha World-Herald
Click here for original link.
By Nancy Gaarder

Blogmaster's Note: These cuts are not restricted to Nebraska and Iowa, but include Missouri and Kansas as well. There is a meeting in Council Bluffs about the proposed cuts: Thursday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Iowa National Guard Armory, 2415 E. Kanesville Blvd., Council Bluffs

The number of Missouri River gauges in Nebraska and Iowa could be reduced under an Obama administration budget proposal.

The gauges are important to such things as flood forecasting, electric power generation and municipal water supplies.

But because so few barges ply the Missouri River, the gauges aren't as important to their original purpose — navigation. This is why some are at risk of being shut down.

To avoid that possibility, the two federal agencies responsible for the gauges are appealing to communities, states, utilities and others to consider setting aside money to cover any lost federal dollars.

The Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey will host a public meeting Thursday in Council Bluffs to discuss the river gauges.

“We want to lay it all on the line and say, ‘Here's what we're looking at,' so that they have more time to see if they can scrape up the funding,” said Greg Nalley, data chief for the U.S. Geological Survey in Iowa.

Nalley said the Geological Survey and Corps of Engineers have a history of working with local governments on funding for gauges. Each gauge costs about $14,900 a year to operate, he said.

That hasn't kept all gauges operating, however. Nalley said Iowa has 18 gauges along the Missouri River and its tributaries, but at one time had about 26.

Tim Temeyer of the Corps of Engineers in Omaha said the gauges are funded through a portion of the Corps budget that pays for bank stabilization and navigation on the Missouri River.

Temeyer, chief of the water control and water quality section of the Omaha corps, said the agency is proposing to set priorities by making cuts based on a program's purpose.

Because the Missouri River sees relatively few barges, proportionately more gauges would be cut along the Missouri River than along a river with significant barge travel, such as the Mississippi or Ohio.

Like Nalley, Temeyer said the goal of the Thursday meeting is to get ahead of any potential cuts.

As it stands now, no one knows what will happen with next year's federal budget, he said. However, the budget year starts in October, so it's possible that funding for gauges could be lost as early as this fall.

As currently proposed, the Missouri River program could see a 40 percent cut, said Dick Taylor, operations program manager for the corps.

The cuts would also affect gauges in the State of Missouri.

Bob Swanson, director of the Geological Survey's Nebraska Water Science Center, said the gauges are important on both sides of the river.

“As these gauges get dropped, they're very hard to replace,” he said.

Swanson said he is hopeful that others agencies will step up.

Runaway barge hits Ike Skelton Bridge

Originally published in Kansas City Star on April 2, 2011
Click here for original link. 

A runaway barge moving down the Missouri River on Saturday evening struck the Ike Skelton Bridge on Missouri 13, causing minor damage.

The Missouri Highway Patrol closed the bridge for two hours but reopened it about 8 p.m.

The barge, origins unknown, continued down the river, Highway Patrol dispatchers said, before hanging up on a dyke east of Lexington before 9 p.m.

Missouri River shipping season starts

 blogmaster's note: First barge transit of the season! The Mary Lynn hits the river today for a fertilizer haul to Brunswick Terminal. The Mary Lynn is a really cool, sleek towboat designed with a shallow draft for the Missouri River.

Originally Published in St. Louis Business Journal on March 22, 2011
Click here for original link.

AGRIServices is starting its shipping season early, with eight barges of fertilizer set to leave St. Louis on Wednesday and arrive Sunday in Brunswick, in Chariton County in north-central Missouri.

The shipping season officially begins April 1, when the U.S. Coast Guard places navigational buoys on the river.

But “the water levels are good enough to get our shipping season started early, and we expect to be busy through mid-December,” said Kevin Holcer of Brunswick-based AGRIServices, in a statement. “We expect to increase our shipping efforts by up to 15 percent.”

AGRIServices will start pushing more than 9,000 tons of fertilizer up the Missouri River on Wednesday via the M/V Mary Lynn, a 3800-horsepower shallow draft boat.

The Missouri Department of Transportation, which supports waterways shipping on the Missouri River, said Jefferson City’s River Terminal expects to receive 6,000 tons of cement Tuesday, and that Hermann Sand and Gravel plans to start moving freight later this week.

"Our goal is to increase the freight moved on the Missouri River, increase connections to other transportation modes, and provide economic development opportunities along the river corridor,” Ernie Perry, freight development administrator for MoDOT, said in a statement.

MoDOT said expectations are for the biggest shipping season on the Missouri River in a decade. In 2010, about 334,000 tons of goods, or the equivalent of 13,000 tractor-truck loads, was shipped on the Missouri River, a 24 percent increase compared with 2009, according to MoDOT.

Perry said one barge carries the same amount of cargo as 70 semi-trucks or 16 rail cars.

Rollin' on the River

Corps of Engineers discuss ‘liquid highway’
by Marshall White
originally published in St. Joseph News-Press - February 9, 2011
original link: http://www.newspressnow.com/localnews/26814051/detail.html

KANSAS CITY — The liquid highway is at St. Joseph’s western doorstep and will be about as good as it can get in 2011.

That was the word from Army Corps of Engineers officials, in Kansas City on Wednesday to meet with navigators, shippers and boaters.

“For Missouri River users, this is as good as it’s going to get,” said John LaRandeau, the corps’ navigation program specialist.