Posted 12/18/2003 9:28:24 PM


Scientists support endangered sturgeon
WASHINGTON (AP) — Government-controlled flows along the lower Mississippi River, relied upon by farmers and barge operators to get grain to markets, threaten the endangered pallid sturgeon, federal biologists said Thursday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the Mississippi River's pallid sturgeon need help.
Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, Times Argus via AP

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said flows should be reduced, beginning next July, to 25,000 cubic feet per second or less from the Gavins Point Dam on the South Dakota-Nebraska border.

Shippers generally need a summer flow of 28,500 cubic feet a second to maintain the depth needed for running huge, grain-laden barges down the river from Nebraska, through Iowa and Kansas to St. Louis, where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet.

"Once again, this places the navigation system in the category of unreliability," said Chris Brescia, who heads a coalition of farmers, barge operators and agribusiness interests.

The specter of sudden flooding during a spring rise also frightens those who live along the lower Missouri.