Drought costing Mississippi River barge business - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Drought costing Mississippi River barge business

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GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI -

The last time the Mississippi River was as low as it is now, it cost the barge industry an estimated $1 billion. That was in 1988.

The current drought in the nation's central states is leaving the Mississippi without rainfall that's its lifeblood.

The river is fed by the third-largest watershed in the world - a large chunk of the U.S. and part of Canada - and drought in that area means lower water along the river. That can put a major hurting on industries that use the river to ship hundreds of millions of tons of products, from grain to gasoline, every year.

The Army Corps of Engineers is using emergency funds to help clear the sandbars on the clogged Mississippi River, but it's working on a tight budget because of the expense of dealing with last year's Mississippi flood.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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