At some point this winter, it may look like you can walk across the Missouri River. Over the objections of several downstream governors, including Missouri’s governor Jay Nixon, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers has begun reconstructing water flows out of northern reservoirs. The result will be a decrease in flow in the Missouri River. The big problem comes in the Mississippi, where decreased flow in the Missouri may bring shipping to a halt between St. Louis and Cairo Illinois. The Mississippi is already low from the summer drought. Under normal conditions, the Mississippi gets about 60% of its flow from the Missouri River and it’s already getting far less than that now. The corps is holding back water to keep its levels up in its northern reservoirs, which are used as recreation lakes. A lack of rainfall across the Missouri headwaters basin this fall is to blame for low water levels in the reservoirs.