Major General John Peabody says removing the rocks will create an extra foot or so of depth, which he’s hoping is enough to keep shipping open through the winter.

 

“It’s impossible to say without a weather forecast that can tell me what’s going to happen 30 days out, and I don’t have that.  But, historical indications are that, yes, this will get us through this stretch, but it’s possible that it won’t.”

 

Months of drought have left water levels up to 20 feet below normal along a 180-mile stretch of the river from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois. The problem worsened when the corps recently cut the outflow from the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis.