Home › Rivers to the Sea › Missouri River is Sinking

Missouri River is Sinking

By Charmaine Coimbra on January 30, 2009 • ( 0 )

I’ m posting this piece because we, our continent, our planet are interconnected. Read on:

KANSAS CITY, MO — The Missouri River is sinking, and water utilities have been hit the hardest, according to a January 28 Associated Press report on hdnews.net.

Portions of the river, from southeast Nebraska to the eastern Missouri community of Hermann near St. Louis, are losing elevation as the river bottom erodes. This is causing big problems for utilities that rely on the river to supply drinking water.

Scientists are focused on Kansas City because of the potential impact there. According to the report, “For Kansas City, at ground zero, it’s meant $4 million and counting to improve the river intake used by the Water Services Department for drinking water.”

As the river erodes, other potential problems arise, including threats to the stability of bridges and levees.

The Missouri River

The US Army Corps of Engineers is completing an initial study of the degradation. While there does not seem to be a clear reason for the degradation, some theories include impacts from dredging, upstream dams that reduce the amount of sediment flowing downstream and other processes.

John Grothaus, chief of the planning section for the Corps of Engineers in Kansas City, said in the report, “Part of the whole problem is it’s not visible,” referring to Kansas City’s investment in pumps to reach lower river levels. “It’s not in the public eye, you can’t see it on the river.”