Lake May Be Drained To Raise Mississippi Levels

[Riverwhy]

I copied this from a local Mark Twain Lake Blog. It looks possible that the Lake could be severley lowered in an effort to raise Mississippi water levels for an additional 8 days of barge traffic. I'm not sure taking water out of an impoundment and flushing it down the river is a logical use of water resources during a drought cycle.

"The lower Mississippi River (south of St. Louis) is nearing a level where barge traffic will no longer be able to haul goods up and down the river. If it gets to that point it will have a serious impact on the economy of the nation and in particular on the Midwest. Part of the Corp’s mandate is to keep the river open to that barge traffic. As the Missouri River system lakes have been tied up in a court case at the Supreme Court level the water they hold is not available for now to help the situation. That leaves the lakes in the upper Mississippi River system as the only source of water to try to maintain a navigable level below St Louis. Mark Twain Lake is tentatively in the Que with 4 other lakes to be one of the major suppliers for the needed water. IF the drought continues and IF the decision is made to tap MTL water there is a possibility for the lake level to drop to the 590 level, which is approximately 6 feet lower than the lake has ever been."

[fishinwrench]

LOL, That wouldn't raise the Miss but a few inches for a few days. The banks of the Salt are unstable so a sudden dump would just result in all that water blowing out into bean fields. This has to be a joke, right?

It would be cool to see LO and Truman sucked dry though.

[fishinwrench]

As the Missouri River system lakes have been tied up in a court case at the Supreme Court level the water they hold is not available for now to help the situation.

Huh? What's that about?

[Riverwhy]

I sadly wish this was a joke. They have already started releasing water out of Lake Carlyle.

"I appreciate your interest in Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake. Mark Twain Lake has been asked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, located in Vicksburg, MS, to provide impacts that would occur if Mark Twain Lake were lowered to support navigation on the Mississippi River. As of today this office has provided the requested impacts but no release has been scheduled by the division office. Your comments have been sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, Water Control Branch. You will be updated via email should new information become available."

Sincerely,

Courtney Wilson

Assistant Operations Manager

Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake

(573) 735-4097

[Guest]

Drawdown isn't always a bad thing.

[Jerry Rapp]

Carlyle has been held 2 feet over summer pool all fall. 445 is summer pool, it has been around 447. It will be lowered to normal winter pool of 443, which should take about 3 to 4 weeks at the 4,000 rate of release. And FW is correct, a herd of cows pissing on flat rocks does about as much good. I sure am glad I don't have to be in on those decision making questions anymore.

[Riverwhy]

Jerry,

It's great to hear that they will not draw the lake down significantly below normal pool. The crappie fishing has been very good the last few weeks and there are few good alternatives to where you can consistently catch crappie exceeding a pound around my neck of the woods.

[jdmidwest]

The Corps manages the water for commerce, and with the Mississippi the way it is now, barge traffic is suffering during a busy season. They have a hard time caring about anything else like fisherman's wants or needs.

They activated the floodway in SE MO last spring to save the worthless town of Cairo from potential flooding. Ruined farmland and wildlife.

[fishinwrench]

Supposed river veterans whining over a single portage that isn't even a reality yet. What a bunch of crybaby's.

Sometimes carrying out your job can be a tad challenging, get over it!

I wish to hell that I could call on the government and the COE to eliminate obstacles everytime a problem surfaced around here.

10 million+ for the COE to knock down a few high spots..... would it really cost more than that to load/unload the barges a few miles further downstream, just until it rained a bit ?

[gotmuddy]

10 million+ for the COE to knock down a few high spots..... would it really cost more than that to load/unload the barges a few miles further downstream, just until it rained a bit ?

The logistics of unloading 1,000,000 gallons+ of liquid fertilizer is bad enough, having to build a new place would cost retarded amounts of money. I have a friend working on the river and he thinks he will be sitting idle for two weeks