Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

Presentation by Brad Walker, Mo. Coalition for the Environment

Original Presentation, September 9, 2015 at Big A’s Restaurant, St. Charles, MO.

Second Presentation, November 10, 2015 at  Les Bourgeois Vineyards Bistro, Rocheport, MO.

The management and engineering of the Missouri River, and the entire Inland Waterway System (IWS) it is a part of (of which the largest part is in the Mississippi River watershed), is driven in large part by the needs of the navigation industry.This has real effects on the ecology and hydrology of the river and the on the communities that live along it, and large public costs for infrastructure maintenance and upgrading.

For the Missouri, river flows are managed through the system of dams and reservoirs that boost late summer flows, while the lower river specifically has been engineered to maintain a 300 foot-wide and 9 feet deep navigation channel.

A comparison of the infrastructure costs paid by the railroad and river navigation industry.
Provided by Missouri Coalition for the Environment

Brad Walker, Big Rivers Director of the Mo. Coalition for the Environment, explored the public benefit of the IWS, revealed what has been the environmental impact of the IWS, and finally compared the costs and benefits of barge transport with its major competitor– rail.