Water Wars Pit Dakotas Against Barges for Missouri Flow
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The Missouri River has blessed and cursed Kevin Schmidt, alternately nourishing or overrunning his farmland. This year its water saved his cows, and it may do so again next year if a lack of rain dries out his soil.
The river sustains farmers and ranchers in its upper basin, 1,000 miles from where shippers are pushing to have more of its water released into the drought-depleted Mississippi River to avert a suspension of barge traffic on the nation’s busiest waterway later this month.