Memphis Flyer staffers Chris McCoy and Bruce VanWyngarden recently went out to get some fresh views of the shrinking Mississippi River.
Posted to Instagram by Memphis Flyer
Flyer staffer Toby Sells had fun last week visiting some of the Memphis area’s best Halloween decorations, from Cooper-Young to Bartlett’s Halloween Cove.
Affirmations
Posted to Instagram by Memphis Affirmations
This IG has not been updated since April, but it’s worth a look. Memphis Affirmations really is an affirmation board for Memphians.
But instead of phrases like “I am enough” or “I am brave and bold,” we tell ourselves, “I will not have my first LSD trip be at the Lamplighter Lounge” or “I will be stronger than 95 percent of the Memphis power lines.”
The Mississippi is 10.75 feet below normal. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
The boardwalk to Harbor Town Marina on Mud Island usually runs at a slight decline to the water from the parking lot near Cordelia’s Market. Today, the walkway slants at a precipitous angle, flat to the ground, down to the marina and its collection of yachts, cruisers, houseboats, and ski-boats, most of which are literally stuck in the mud. The Mississippi River is at its all-time historical low in Memphis — 10.75 feet below normal.
I’m meeting John Gary, one of Memphis’ preeminent river men. Gary’s been going out on the Mississippi since his boyhood, 50 years ago. He knows the Memphis section of the river like few others. We’ve been friends for many years.
“Over here,” he shouts. I see him approaching from the far end of the dock, where there appears to be at least a few inches of water, and where Gary’s 19-foot runabout is tied up.
“This is crazy,” I said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he replies. “There’s a lot of beach out there where a river used to be.”
John Gary and Max (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
We climb into the boat and putter our way south, heading out of the harbor, past the Downtown skyline, past the exposed cobblestones, and past an ancient, long-hidden motorboat with its stern sticking out of the mud. Gary’s two dogs, Max and Lyon, are our happy passengers.
Once on the river, we turn north and motor briskly under the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. We’re going over to take a look at the Loosahatchie Bar (known by locals as Robinson Crusoe Island). It’s the island you see just north of the bridge as you cross into Arkansas. Well, it used to be an island. Now, not so much. What was once a river back-channel is currently a vast sandbar that connects the island to the mainland and reaches halfway across the river to Downtown.
Gary finds a good spot to stick the boat anchor in the sand and we tie off. The dogs run ahead, eager to explore this fresh Sahara, with its high white dunes and its deep dark pockets where the water lingered longest, now as dry as the gar and carp bones bleaching in the sun. Animal footprints remain in the once-muddy sand around the now-gone watering holes: great blue heron, coyote/dog, raccoon, even a large cat track or two. I take photo after photo, dazzled by the weirdness of standing on the bottom of the country’s biggest river.
After a while, we decide to motor upriver along Mud Island, where we pass a long string of barges that are running their engines at the precise speed needed to stay in place against the current. They are loaded with benzene (used to refine gasoline), ammonia, fertilizer, concrete, and other farm and industrial essentials.
Harbor Town Marina (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Gary explains that the channel has narrowed so much upriver that only one barge can pass at a time. Barges coming downstream have the right of way, so upstream barges can often sit for hours a day, burning fuel, awaiting their turn. For the moment, this section of America’s supply chain is dead in the water. Results coming soon to a gas station or construction site near you.
We continue north until we reach the mouth of the Wolf River, which looks more like the Wolf Ripple as it splashes over rocks and mud, adding a temporary trickle to the Mother of Waters.
How long does this go on? How low can the Mississippi go? And as Mother Nature continues to show us new climate change tricks, is this something we can expect to happen more often? The immediate prediction is that we can expect the river to stay low for the near future, and possibly even drop further. Meaning we can expect a vital supply lane for the U.S. economy to continue to be slowed, at best.
Back at Harbor Town, we tie off Gary’s boat to the very end of the marina in a couple feet of water. As we survey the bent steel and broken boards of the marina’s structure, and the dozens of boats settled into the brown goo, it’s obvious that most of these vessels won’t be going anywhere for quite some time. For now, there is no joy in Mud Island. The mighty Mississippi has struck out.
Posts are pouring in on the record-low level of the Mississippi River. Let’s have a look at conditions from the headwaters at Itasca State Park in Minnesota (where levels are normal) to Louisiana (where they’re not).
Minnesota
Illinois
Posted to Twitter by Ohio Valley Aerial
A dry spot south of Cairo, IL.
Missouri
Posted to Twitter by Hiking With Shawn
People are hiking to Tower Rock, which is usually surrounded by water.
Tennessee
Posted to Twitter by Charles Peek
Boats sag onto the muddy bottom of the Wolf River Harbor at the Mud Island Marina.
The banks of the Mississippi River at Memphis. (Photo: Dulce Torres Guzman)
John Dodson’s corn, cotton and soybean fields lie fewer than 10 miles from the Mississippi River, the key transportation artery for west Tennessee grain farmers. But they might as well be a thousand miles.
Historically low water levels on the river are coming at the worst possible time for him. It’s peak harvest season, but he can’t get his crop to market.
West Tennessee farmers have long relied on proximity to the Mississippi, delivering their crops directly from the field to the river. The ease of access has meant many farmers lack large grain storage silos that farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere rely on.
While drought strangles transportation on the Mississippi, many of these farmers are now being forced to leave crops in the field and pray for rain to fall anywhere and everywhere else but above their harvest-ready crops.
“It’s a double-edged sword for us right now,” Dodson said. “We need rain for the river to go up, but we don’t need it in terms of our crops in the field.”
“I haven’t ever seen this before. We have the Mississippi right on our back doorstep and we’ve always been able to rely on it.”
The Mississippi River last week reached the lowest levels ever recorded — at minus-10.75 feet near Memphis, according to the National Weather Service.
It is the most critical artery for grain exports in the nation. About 60% of all U.S. grain exports flow down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico for overseas export, according to the National Park Service.
It’s a double-edged sword for us right now. We need rain for the river to go up, but we don’t need it in terms of our crops in the field.
– John Dodson, Dyer County farmer
Barge traffic has been restricted and the U.S. Coast Guard has limited the weight borne by each barge, measured in drafts — or the distance between the waterline and the deepest point of the boat. Draft limits are typically 12 feet. Last week the Guard limited drafts to 9 feet below the waterline in an effort to avert groundings in shallow water.
“There’s been a lot of groundings,” said Jamie Bigbie, vice president of Southern-Devall, which operates fleets of towboats and liquid barges that typically carry fertilizer to farmers.
The delays have been have costly, he said. A recent trip that typically takes seven days down the Mississippi took the company’s crew 14 days, he said. Weight restrictions limiting the amount of cargo still require the same number of crew, driving up costs.
Crews stay on board for the entirety of the trip so the delays require additional supply boats bringing provisions and fuel to the barges, he said. And barges running aground imperil the safety of the crews on board and require expensive repairs, he said.
“We need rain, obviously,” he said. “And I hope we get rain before it turns into snow. That’s how we get the ball rolling. I pray for rain.”
Nashville-based Ingram Barge, the largest barge operator in the United States, notified customers it had declared record water levels a “force majeure event,” the company said in a statement on Friday. The declaration invokes an “act of God” provision in their contracts.
“Chronic low water conditions throughout the inland river system have had a negative effect on many who rely on the river, including Ingram Barge,” the statement from John Roberts, Ingram Barge’s CEO, said. “We recently informed customers that given the difficult operating conditions posed by this low water, we were providing formal notice of a force majeure event — namely that circumstances out of our control were preventing normal river transport operations in certain areas.”
The banks of the Mississippi River at Memphis. (Photo: Dulce Torres Guzman)
Dodson, the Dyer County farmer, said he is more fortunate than most. He and his father took advantage of a state cost-sharing program to build large grain storage structures on their farm. The situation for neighboring farms is more dire, he said. More than 90% of Dyer County is devoted to agriculture.
The wait to load grain onto Consolidated Grain & Barge in Dyersburg has been running 4-7 hours a day. Dodson’s other loading destination in Lauderdale County has experienced multiple day-long closures entirely in recent weeks.
Those two locations handle the majority of crops in Dyer, Lauderdale, Obion, Tipton, Crockett and other west Tennessee counties, including Dodson’s.
The weather in west Tennessee has been beautiful – sunny, temperate and perfect for harvesting crops. Any substantial rain now could imperil crops in the field. Dodson is setting his hopes on rain anywhere north – Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota – to replenish the river.
“We need rain in the United States, but it doesn’t need to be in Dyer County,” he said.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
The exposed beach on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River across from Memphis has grown to more than a mile in width. Hiker Sallie Sabatini lends perspective on the epic scale of the scene.
Flyer staffers Chris McCoy and Bruce VanWyngarden went out to get some fresh views of the shrinking Mississippi River on Thursday. Here are some of their shots. VanWyngarden hitched a boat ride from local river expert John Gary. McCoy and several friends hiked along the Arkansas side.
Under the M Bridge – bvMouth of the Wolf River at a trickle – bvView from Loosahatchie Bar – bvJohn Gary and Max in the middle of the Mississippi -bvLoosahatchie Bar – bvDowntown’s new beachfront property – bvHarbor Town Marina – bvHiking on what is usually the bottom of the river. – cmCracks appear in the “Big Muddy – cm”.The view under the Harahan and I-55 bridges – cmStriations along the sandy riverbank provides perspective on the historically low river level. – cmThe exposed beach on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River across from Memphis has grown to more than a mile in width. Hiker Sallie Sabatini lends perspective on the epic scale of the scene. cmJohn Pickle examines the remains of the 19th-century ferry dock on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. – cmAnybody lose a boat? – cmThis exposed tree trunk is usually underwater. – cmEven at a historically low level, the Mississippi River never stops carving new channels. cmChris McCoy descends a dune on the drought-expanded banks of the Mississippi RIver. – cmAtop an exposed jetty. – cmExplorers stopping for a lunch break. Note the animal tracks in the foreground. – cmSeen from the beach, the Harahan Bridge appears to cross a dry river. Crews have been struggling to keep the last navigable lanes of the river open. cmAll photos by Chris McCoy and Bruce VanWyngarden
Storm chaser William Frogge flew drones over the Mississippi River recently to show just how low the water level has dropped. He said the levels are the lowest they’ve been since 2012 and are the third-lowest reading on record. Check his YouTube channel for more details.
#Archie
Posted to Nextdoor by Gertrude Moeller
Cooper-Youngers know Archie. The dog roams the neighborhood streets enough to merit his own hashtag on Nextdoor.
A September post about the dog was still rolling last week. The original post had Archie’s neighbor claiming no responsibility for the dog. The owner’s mother intervened to say the owner had done everything she could and that the Nextdoor posts were hurtful. Commenters offered solutions, got a bit nasty, and, then, called for kindness. Typical day in the Nextdoor neighborhood.
Lil Buck
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Jookin’
Memphis’ Lil Buck shows up in amazing and unlikely places. Last week, he shocked the crowd at a Hollywood Bowl performance by Pentatonix. Acting first as conductor, Buck turned to the crowd, did his thing, and was joined by beatboxer/cellist Kevin Olusola.
It left one commenter saying, “They better be careful the stage doesn’t collapse under all that #BlackExcellence!”
Memphicity Design, a Memphis design and apparel shop, captured the moment in T-shirt form recently. On it, MLGW doesn’t stand for Memphis Light, Gas & Water but “Mane Lemme Getcho Wallet.”
Imagine
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Memes 901
This meme was passed around the MEMernet last week. The source could not be found. So, we don’t know if the OP was trolling or was truly misguided. But the comments ranged from the obvious — “tHat’S nOT MeMpHiS!” — to the ever-present jokes about crime.
The Mississippi River at Vicksburg. (Photo credit Jim Alvis and Mike Manning, USGS).
The Mississippi River is one of the most endangered rivers in America for 2022 and several groups are asking Congress to protect it.
American Rivers, a national river conservation group, ranked the Mississippi sixth on its top ten list for the year. Pollution and habitat loss are the major threats to the river that runs through 10 states, according to the group.
The report says the Mississippi River is an “internationally important river ecosystem” and an “ecological lifeline” for North America. It provides “vital” habitat for more than 870 species of fish and other wildlife. It is also critically important to more than 325 bird species, dozens of migratory fish, and pollinating insects like the monarch butterfly.
The Mississippi River’s economic impact is $500 billion per year. It supports 1.5 million jobs.
The river is also a “crucial economic engine,” the report says. Agricultural economists have put the value at $400 billion annually. Closing the river would cost $295 million per day for shipping traffic, Gary Lagrange, CEO of the Port of New Orleans, told CBS News in 2019. American River’s report said its current economic impact is $500 billion per year. Manufacturing, tourism, and agriculture account for most of the nearly 1.3 million jobs provided by the river.
The report says nearly 20 million people live in the 123 counties that border the Mississippi River. It provides drinking water for more than 50 cities and towns. But the river is threatened, the report says, primarily by pollution and flooding.
Twenty million people live along the river. Fifty cities rely on it for drinking water.
Pollution is contaminating drinking water and causing toxic algae blooms in and along the Mississippi. For example, Des Moines, Iowa residents will pay $333 million over the next four years to remove nitrogen from their drinking water. Pollution in the river is delivered to the Gulf of Mexico where its has created a 6,000-square-mile “dead zone” that kills marine life. Microplastics and pharmaceuticals rise as new threats to water quality.
Flood damages are escalating, according to the report, thanks largely to climate change. Damages hit hardest in under-resourced communities, especially those comprised of people of color, the report says.
“Historically, white colonists segregated indigenous, immigrant, Black, poor, and other non-dominant social groups to the Mississippi River floodplains,” reads the report. “They bear the brunt of flooding and poor river management to this day.”
Flood damage hits hardest in communities of color and in low-income communities.
For all of this and more, a coalition of about 50 groups is calling for Congress to pass the Mississippi River Restoration and Resilience Initiative (MRRRI). It would coordinate and increase resources for restoration and resilience opportunities up and down the river.
For one, it would set aside about $300 million annually for federal, state, tribal groups, cities, and organizations for improvements in and along the Mississippi River. A quarter of that money would go to projects in in communities of color or low-income communities.
It would also set up a geographic program office within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do this. That office could work across state lines to better organize efforts by the many organizations working there.
Restoration and resilience programs on the Mississippi River are disjointed and poorly coordinated.
Olivia Dorothy, American Rivers restoration director
“At the moment, the restoration and resilience programs on the Mississippi River are disjointed and poorly coordinated,” said Olivia Dorothy, American Rivers restoration director.
The EPA already has such geographic program offices that serve the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Everglades.
The MRRRI bill is co-sponsored in the U.S. House by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis).
Back in the days of lockdown (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
To anyone who may have been driving around Memphis last weekend, please accept my sincere apology. I was playing tour guide to my aunt and uncle, who were visiting from North Carolina, and, being somewhat distracted, I made what my sister called some “interesting” driving decisions. So if you saw someone still stopped at a green light, pointing out a particular piece of architecture or a local landmark, that was probably me. I hope I didn’t make you late for an appointment.
Besides being absolutely roasted for my inability to be a somewhat competent distracted driver, the day was a delight. My aunt is from Memphis and my uncle was stationed here when he was in the Army many years ago, so they’re not totally new to the city, but it still felt like a chance to see my hometown with new eyes.
Before I delve into our itinerary, know that I know we barely scratched the surface of any meaningful Memphis to-do list. But I tried to cater to everyone’s personal interests as much as possible.
First, we went to Crosstown Concourse, which my aunt pointed out has been much transformed since its time as a Sears building. Indeed.
We took in the last day of photographer Jamie Harmon’s “Quarantine Portrait” exhibition, and I was struck again by the power of so many faces seen through so many windows and screen doors. Though I had seen many of the portraits before — even written about Harmon’s work while it was still in progress — seeing them all collected was another experience entirely. Though I don’t truly believe we’re fully out of the Covid woods just yet, it brought home how much has changed in the past two years. Often, perhaps as a side effect of my profession, I tend to focus on the seemingly negative changes — the loss of trust, the fragmentation of communities — but I was forced to confront the many ways things are better than they were in April 2020. It was a catharsis to revisit that time from the safety of an art gallery, and with loved ones in the same room. That is a blessing I must endeavor not to take for granted.
While at Crosstown, we stopped at the little reading area, where my nephew enjoyed finding books about dinosaurs. It’s a place I’ve walked past many times but hadn’t taken the time to appreciate. How many such spots must there be in town?
Next, we made our way to Broad Avenue, to give the out-of-towners a chance to peruse some arty knick-knacks and to reward my nephew with some ice cream after his patience with the exhibition. He’s 4 years old, so his tolerance for the gravity of any situation is tenuous at best. My fiancée, who is passionate about the built environment, enjoyed being able to talk about the work done in both locations. My nephew enjoyed a cup of chocolate ice cream and the faux-flower-wearing skeletons at Sugar Ghost Ice Cream and Bubble Tea.
We spent a little bit of time talking about and looking at Summer Avenue, then we hopped back on North Parkway to hustle down to Greenbelt Park by the Mississippi River. It was a sunny, breezy spring day, and there were picnickers, joggers, dog-walkers, pot-smokers, cyclists, and everyone in between enjoying it. There’s something special about being close to the river, and we all felt it. Until I accidentally knocked my nephew off a tree while we were playing some game in which we were both (I think?) territorial spiders locked in bitter combat. Oops. Everyone was okay, though it was decided that perhaps it was time to move on.
We drove through the South Main Arts District, where my uncle used to pick up his contacts. We talked about the trolleys, the changes, the things that had stayed the same. We drove past a busy FedExForum and saw young people popping wheelies on ATVs. We waved as we passed both business and entertainment districts Downtown, and I pointed out a billboard of Ja Morant in the Vitruvian Man pose.
Eventually we made it back to my house to make dinner and play board games, not unlike how we used to spend so much time at my Grannie’s house when I was a child. It was modest, but not without its own magic.
I guess, in many ways, that’s true of Memphis, too.
(Credit: Mississippi River Mayors Cities and Towns Initiative)
Plastic is the top trash left behind in the Mississippi River corridor, according to a new report from the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) and the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme.
(Credit: Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative)
In April, citizen-scientists collected litter in St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the beginning phase of the Mississippi River Plastic Pollution Initiative. They collected 75,184 pieces of litter and 75 percent of that — 660 pounds — was plastic.
The top items included cigarette butts (filters are made of plastic), plastic food wrappers, and plastic beverage bottles. These were followed by plastic foam fragments, aluminum cans, hard plastic fragments, and plastic bags.
(Credit: Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative)
“Community members scientifically surveyed areas greater than 20,000 football fields to gather this valuable data with Debris Tracker [technology],” said Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Georgia and National Geographic Explorer. “The results show that there are opportunities for interventions in each pilot city to reduce the quantity of plastic ending up in our environment and the Mississippi River.”
(Credit: Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative)
Memphians collected and tagged litter in April, too, using the UN’s Debris Tracker. They found 158 pieces of litter near Mount Zion Church on Weaver Road close to T.O. Fuller State Park. There, they encountered beverage bottles, food wrappers, assorted bits of rubber, metal, and plastic, and more. On Overton Square (the block containing Saltwater Crab, between Diana and Florence St.), they found 124 piece of litter, including straws, cigarette butts, plastic cups, food wrappers, and more.
The Mississippi River corridor is a draining system for 40 percent of the continental United States. Litter in cities gets to the river from storm drains and smaller waterways. It poses a threat to the river’s environmental quality and ecosystem health.
Litter along the river ultimately makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico and into the ocean. Approximately 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, with rivers contributing to a significant portion of that amount.
(Credit: Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative)
“We learned a lot through this new approach regarding where waste gathers, how much of it there is, and the type,” said Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome. “We now have valuable information to help support not only existing storm water programs but improve our waste management systems and infrastructure going forward.”
