Sit up, shake, fetch

Can mankind train a river? Apparently he can. And Homo faber, the man who controls his environment with tools, has been doing it for more than a century.

The other day the paper detailed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts in dealing with historically low water levels on the Mississippi River, and that includes training the river to dredge itself.

First, it should be understood that the Mississippi River is low. Really low. Dangerously low. The paper said Memphis saw an all-time record low on Oct. 17. Boats and ships and tugs tend to scrape the bottom when rivers get too low, considered by some riverboat captains to be poor form. Especially if they get stuck or damage their vessels.

So heavier barge loads have been delayed in passing from the Arkansas River into the Mississippi River for nearly three weeks. Not good for all those items that Arkansas likes to ship.

“In that river, we are seeing grain, fertilizers, agricultural products, [petrochemical] products and other critical commodities move on a daily basis both north and south. So we certainly appreciate the effects low water has on commerce, on recreation and a range of goods and services for the people in the Mississippi Valley,” said Memphis District Commander Col. Brian Sawser.

One answer is to bring in equipment to dredge low areas and create more depth. However, we called Jay Townshend, chief public affairs officer for the Little Rock district, and he told us “doing that on the Arkansas alone would practically bankrupt the country.” Enter River Training 101.

It’s difficult to look at any length of the river without noticing jetties, dikes and revetments along its length. For more than 100 years, these have been built to strategically direct the river’s flow. They constrict flow in one area, which creates velocity in another area.

The faster water naturally dislodges the silt and debris that reduces the depths by sweeping it down river and increasing the depth in natural shipping lanes. Sure, adjustments are necessary from time to time, but for the most part they’re permanent.

Your tax dollars (actually) at work. Who says all the news is bad?