Barges Will Stall Due to Army Corps Delays, Shippers Say

Barge traffic on the Mississippi River will be stalled even if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides next week to release more water from a major tributary, according to shippers who are already reducing loads on the drought-shrunken waterway.

“We needed action yesterday,” Debra Colbert, senior vice president of the Waterways Council Inc., an Arlington, Virginia-based industry group that includes shippers and ports. “You still may be looking at a shutdown, certainly a reduction in traffic.”