Drought provides hard times for barge shippers on the Mississippi

• Traveling down the river

A barge handles traffic on the Mississippi River.

Talk about it

ST. PAUL - Thanks to the drought, shippers are having a harder time getting their products up-and-down the Mississippi River on Wisconsin’s western border.

Lock-and-dam regulator Farley Haase of the Army Corps of Engineers says flows on the Mississippi are less than normal in the southern part of his district – but in the upper sections of Minnesota, flows remain above normal due to massive heavy rains in the northern part of the Gopher State in June. Haase says the river continues to see lower-than-normal flows heading south toward Saint Louis.

That’s creating shallower waters – and as a result, cargo operators on the Lower Mississippi have had to lighten their loads.

Tags: news, minnesota, wisconsin, business, agriculture