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Tag: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

  • DC Del. Norton presses leader of Army Corps on search for backup water source – WTOP News

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    With one of the Potomac River’s drinking water intakes shut down after last month’s massive sewage spill, concerns are growing about how vulnerable the region is without a true secondary water source.

    With one of the Potomac River’s drinking water intakes shut down after last month’s massive sewage spill, concerns are growing about how vulnerable the D.C. region is without a true secondary water source.

    During a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers pressed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to explain what’s being done to secure solid backup options for D.C.’s drinking water.

    The Washington Aqueduct remains the only source of drinking water for D.C., Arlington and parts of Fairfax County in Virginia, and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said the region doesn’t have the resiliency it needs.

    “With only one day of backup water supply, man-made or natural events that make the river unusable would put residents, the District government and the regional economy at risk,” Norton said.

    Norton challenged the Corps after being told the study that Congress authorized to identify a secondary water source may be narrowed to only expanding existing storage.

    “Expansion of the reservoir is not a secondary water source,” Norton said.

    Lt. Gen. William H. “Butch” Graham Jr. told lawmakers the Corps is working on near‑term improvements, including adding storage at the existing Dalecarlia Reservoir, which is on federal land.

    “The expansion of the Dalecarlia Reservoir would add an additional 12 hours of supply. That’s a 33% increase that’s achievable near-term,” Graham said.

    Graham also said the search for longer-term alternate sources remains active, including the potential use of Travilah Quarry in Montgomery County as an additional reservoir. That comes despite indications from the Corps during a briefing to D.C. Water in February that the quarry may be off the table.

    “We are not limiting the scope of this study, but we are looking for early, actionable elements that we can put to make the resiliency of the city’s drinking water safer as soon as possible,” Graham said.

    Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle pointed to the recent spill as a reminder of why redundancy is critical for the region’s drinking water system.

    “This challenge in the Potomac River is one of the greatest ecological disasters of its type to ever occur in our nation,” Telle said. “We share your goal to ensure that the Washington, D.C. water supply is has the necessary redundancies, given that the seat of government is here in Washington. It’s a critically important goal.”

    He added that ensuring the capital’s water supply has the necessary backup is both a public‑safety and national‑security priority.

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    Mike Murillo

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  • Barges grounded by low water halt Mississippi River traffic

    Barges grounded by low water halt Mississippi River traffic

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    The unusually low water level in the lower Mississippi River is causing barges to get stuck in mud and sand, disrupting river travel for shippers, recreational boaters and even passengers on a cruise line.

    Lack of rainfall in recent weeks has left the Mississippi River approaching record low levels in some areas from Missouri south through Louisiana. The U.S. Coast Guard said at least eight “groundings” of barges have been reported in the past week, despite low-water restrictions on barge loads.

    One of the groundings happened Friday between Louisiana and Mississippi, near Lake Providence, Louisiana. It halted river traffic in both directions for days “to clear the grounded barges from the channel and to deepen the channel via dredging to prevent future groundings,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Sabrina Dalton said in an email.

    As a result, dozens of tows and barges were lined up in both directions, waiting to get by. The stoppage also brought a halt to a Viking cruise ship with about 350 passengers on board, said R. Thomas Berner, a Penn State professor emeritus of journalism and American studies, and one of the passengers.

    The Viking ship was originally supposed to launch from New Orleans on Saturday, but the water there was so low that the launch was moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Berner said.

    By Tuesday, the ship was halted near Vicksburg, Mississippi, due to the backup caused by the grounding. It wasn’t near a dock so passengers couldn’t leave. The ship’s crew kept people entertained as much as possible with music, games and other activities.

    “Some of us are taking naps,” Berner joked.

    The stuck barges were freed midday Tuesday. Berner said the cruise ship restarted Tuesday night, but the restart didn’t last long: Viking told passengers in a letter Wednesday that the rest of the scheduled two-week trip was being called off, citing low water problems causing additional closures. Viking made arrangements to get passengers home and the letter said they would get a full refund.

    Nearly all of the Mississippi River basin, from Minnesota through Louisiana, has seen below-normal rainfall since late August. The basin from St. Louis south has been largely dry for three months, according to the National Weather Service.

    The timing is bad because barges are busy carrying recently harvested corn and soybeans up and down the river.

    Lucy Fletcher of the agricultural retailer AGRIServices of Brunswick, who serves on the board for the St. Louis-based trade association Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals, said navigation woes on the Mississippi, Missouri and other major rivers have some shippers looking at other means of transportation.

    “Can they divert to rail?” Fletcher asked. “Well, there’s not an abundance of rail availability. And usually people are booking their transportation for fall early in the season. So if they haven’t booked that freight already, you’re going to see people in dire straits.”

    Fletcher said that with the supply chain still snagged following the COVID-19 pandemic, trucks also are largely booked and unavailable.

    Mike Steenhoek, executive director of Soy Transportation Coalition, said 29% of the nation’s soybean crop is transported by barge. He estimated that barge capacity is down by about one-third this fall because of limits on the tows caused by the low water. That reduced capacity at a time when demand remains high is contributing to a 41% jump in barge shipping prices over the past year.

    Matt Ziegler, manager of public policy and regulatory affairs for the National Corn Growers Association, said about 20% of the corn crop is exported, and nearly two-thirds of those exports typically travel down the Mississippi River on barges before being sent out of New Orleans.

    “It’s certainly the worst time possible for these bad conditions,” Ziegler said.

    To keep river traffic flowing, the Corps of Engineers has been dredging the Mississippi at several spots and placed limits on the number of barges each tow can move.

    The forecast for much of the Mississippi River basin calls for continued dry weather in the near future. Fletcher is hopeful the winter will bring some relief.

    “We need a good year for lots of snow melt,” she said. “The whole system’s just going to need some water.”

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    AP journalists Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

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