I haven't heard anything about this before now, and don't see anything else about it where I get information from without searching it up. This is catastrophic for agriculture, the ancient ecology of the Mississippi River, and the many millions of people that live along the river. I'm sure this has happened before to the river, and time will heal it, the tougher species will survive, and people will adapt, but it could take centuries, or even millennia before the river restores it's natural bed and quits dumping into the aquifer we've been pumping dry for decades underneath it.
I'd be interested in any comments from folks that live along the Mississippi and are willing to share their understanding and potential solutions to the human catastrophe this is causing from their perspectives.
From what I can tell, the only way to really restore the natural flow of the river is to stop (and reverse) channelizing the river, allow flooding to happen seasonally, and re-engineer riverine communities and agricultural uses accordingly. Also, not sucking underground aquifers dry and instead only tap them to the degree they recharge. When we suck them up faster than they recharge, we're stealing water from our kids, and I reckon it's better for us and them if we just adapt by using surface water, such as the river, or even desalinating the gulf water, and living within our means as far as natural ecosystems and geological systems go.
Agriculture along the Mississippi is largely corporate, and I think we've got more than enough valueless factory simulated food and feed to inspire us to grow our own using aquaponics, which solves all the right problems in all the right ways to benefit all the real people concerned.
Anybody living on the Mississippi have some thoughts to share? I'd especially appreciate criticism, because nothing more quickly sets me straight than showing me I'm wrong. I hate to be wrong and make mistakes because I don't know better.