Flooding forecast raises barge traffic concerns in Iowa

Impending floodwaters will likely disrupt barge shipping on the Upper Mississippi River this spring, according to both industry and government sources.

“We already know that we will be shut down between the Quad Cities and Dubuque for at least a week,” said Larry Daily, president of Alter Barge Lines of Bettendorf, one of the Upper Mississippi's leading shippers.

“If it keeps raining, we could be shut down for a long time,” said Daily, whose company specializes in transporting grain downstream and coal and fertilizer upstream.

Daily said the company's biggest concern is getting fertilizer to its customers in time for spring planting season.

“There is still a lot of fertilizer left to be moved, and customers need it by a certain time,” he said.

Alter barges and towboats have gone no farther upstream than Dubuque this spring because of concerns that flooding will close the river to shipping and strand equipment and crews upriver, Daily said.

While that is a legitimate concern, “there is no indication in the immediate future” that the river will be closed to shipping, said Lt. Rob McCaskey, with the U.S. Coast Guard in St. Louis.

The Coast Guard makes that call, in consultation with the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, McCaskey said.

“Like everyone else, we will be looking very closely” at the next National Weather Service spring flooding outlook scheduled to be released Thursday, McCaskey said.

In its last Upper Mississippi outlook on March 3, the Weather Service said there is “a very high likelihood for flooding at least reaching the moderate level” and that “major or even record flooding is very possible.”

The new outlook will come on the heels of heavy precipitation and continuing melting of an above-average snowpack in the Upper Mississippi basin, the Weather Service said.

McCaskey said specific river stages trigger Coast Guard responses. When the river reaches the “high water” stage at a given location, certain precautions are taken, with river closure usually occurring when the river reaches the “extreme high water” stage.

At Lock and Dam 10 in Guttenberg, for example, where flood stage is 15 feet, the “extreme high water” trigger reading is 16 feet.

At Lock and Dam 11 in Dubuque, where flood stage is 16 feet, the extreme high water trigger reading is 18 feet.

“It's quite common to have certain parts of the river open while others are closed,” McCaskey said.

The river is typically closed to pleasure craft “way before” commercial shipping is affected, he said.

In practice, the Corps of Engineers' closure of certain locks and dams usually shuts down shipping before the Coast Guard declares the river closed, Alter Barge Line's Daily said.

Dennis Shannon, chief of the Corps' lock and dam section, acknowledged that the Corps' lock closures usually precede Coast Guard declarations.

“Once the water goes over the lock walls, we have to pull electric motors and other machinery to prevent damage,” he said.

As an example, he cited Lock and Dam 17 at New Boston, Ill., which closes when the river reaches 18.1 feet, which is still within the moderate flood stage.

Daily said Alter lost two months of shipping because of high water in both 2001 and in 2008. Excellent shipping weather in November allowed the company to make up most of its lost time in 2008, he said.

Celebration River Cruises, which operates the 800-passenger Celebration Belle excursion boat based at Moline, Ill., had its first cruise of the year Sunday and has no plans to cancel any upcoming cruises.

“We're good to go unless the Coast Guard closes down the river,” said group tour planner Susan Yarolem.