Upper Mississippi River

"American Rivers has named the Mississippi River one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2022, highlighting the threats that habitat destruction and pollution, combined with climate impacts, pose to millions of people across the basin. Nearly 40 percent of land in the continental United States drains into the Mississippi River, which faces urban and agricultural runoff, habitat loss, and intensifying storms. The climate crisis is compounding these threats – more frequent and severe floods carry excess sediment and pollution off the land and into the river."

"High water and longer-lasting flooding are changing the habitat along the Upper Mississippi River . . . Higher discharge, or put simply, more water running through the river, was the most widespread change observed throughout the Upper Mississippi River system . . . Higher discharge, or put simply, more water running through the river, was the most widespread change observed throughout the Upper Mississippi River system . . . The upper Midwest is projected to get wetter into the future, particularly during winter and spring . . . And along the river, an increase in surfaces that are impervious — meaning they don't allow water to seep through and soak into the ground — is forcing more water into the river and its tributaries. Levees and floodwalls that have been built to prevent flooding have also cut off many wetland areas from the rest of the ecosystem, decreasing ecological diversity."

". . . the Minnesota River is overwhelmed by farm runoff. Corn and soybean fields fill southern Minnesota. The region has a growing hog industry. Lakes and rivers in southern Minnesota are often too polluted to fish or swim in, and the river has become the state’s biggest contributor of nitrates to the Mississippi."

"Sport fish have declined significantly in portions of the Upper Mississippi River infested with Asian carp . . . Analysis of nearly 20 years of population data suggests the carp are out-competing fish prized by anglers, such as yellow perch, bluegill, and black and white crappie . . . "

"Near record concentrations of farm pollution were measured flowing down the Mississippi River . . . The big river’s nitrogen concentration is nearing its highest level since 1997 . . . Farm pollution harms more than aquatic life. Water pollution caused by nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers causes the rapid growth of toxic algae. This uncontrolled algae bloom can lead to dangerously low levels of oxygen, or hypoxia, and the spread of a toxin known as cyanobacteria.

“The Mississippi River lock at Upper St. Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis will close — permanently, as far as anyone knows — after this shipping season. The closure, by act of Congress, is meant to stop an anticipated invasion by several non-native oversized carp species known for ravaging ecosystems with their voracious appetites . . . Closing the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock means the carp can't use it as an elevator to migrate into lakes and rivers upstream of Minneapolis.”

“As an Ojibwe child from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, I grew up around hunters. But aside from our mother teaching us to snare rabbits, we didn't trap animals, as ‘bush Indians' did. Instead, we harvested wild rice in the fall, and made maple sugar in the spring, and shopped for food like everyone else . . . None of the other kids from Leech Lake that I knew had grown up trapping or living off the land either. But this was still held up as the only true Ojibwe way of life.”

“Groups in nine states petitioned the federal government in July to set and enforce pollution standards in the Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico. The petition to the US Environmental Protection Agency followed an announcement that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the second largest to date at 8,000 square miles. The dead zone is an area of water where oxygen levels are too low to support marine life, caused by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that flows largely from fertilizer runoff into the Mississippi, and then into the gulf. Organizations from states bordering the Mississippi River — Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin — said the EPA has dropped the ball in enforcing a 1998 rule, which required states to set standards for pollution in the Mississippi by 2003.”

“‘The 1993 flood was the worst ever known north of Cairo '. . . The floods covered millions of acres of farmland and drove 36,000 people from their homes. The most severe flooding came along 464 miles of the Mississippi, from McGregor, Iowa, down to St. Louis . . . [After the flood] Instead of building more levees, the federal government began a process of buying whole towns or parts of them, along with farms, on the flood plain and moving the residents to higher ground . . . Within two years, 8,000 families had sold their property to the government and moved to higher ground.”

“The program has been very successful since its establishment, restoring more than 100,000 acres on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers above Cairo, Illinois. These restoration projects have reestablished native aquatic vegetation through dam draw downs, restored braided channels through island construction, created underwater hills and trenches for fish habitat through dredging, and created many other types of habitat. The long-term monitoring component of UMRR-EMP continues to publish important research on the unique qualities of this large river ecosystem to teach the world how to better manage such a significant resource.”

“Asian carp is a catchall name for species of silver, bighead, grass, and black carp from Southeast Asia... Voracious filter feeders, Asian carp consume up to 20% of their bodyweight per day in plankton and can grow to over 100 pounds . . . Asian carp were imported into the U.S. in the 1970s to filter pond water in fish farms in Arkansas. Flooding allowed them to escape and establish reproducing populations in the wild by the early 1980s. At present, bighead carp have been found in the open waters of 23 states and silver carp in 17 states. Asian carp represent over 97% of the biomass in portions of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers and are swiftly spreading northward up the Illinois River in the direction of the Great Lakes.”

“That erosion, floodwater, and sediment damages in the watersheds of the rivers and streams of the United States, causing loss of life and damage to property, constitute a menace to the national welfare; and that it is the sense of Congress that the Federal Government should cooperate with States and their political subdivisions, soil, or water conservation districts, flood prevention or control districts, and other local public agencies for the purpose of preventing such damages, of furthering the conservation, development, utilization, and disposal of water, and the conservation and utilization of land and thereby of preserving, protecting, and improving the Nation's land and water resourced and the quality of the environment.”

“I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god - sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; The only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities - ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons, and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget . . . ”

“By 1937 the Corps has dug out 64 million cubic yards of earth to make cutoffs that shortened the lower river by 150 miles. The enormous undertaking also raised 600 miles of levees and constructed countless new ones – some as far as five miles back from the riverbanks — to allow the river to spread out onto its ancient flood plain. Finally the Corps built dams to create lakes to store any excess water, which could be released slowly once the river dropped below flood level.”