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Fast
Facts
- Length of Missouri River:2,341 miles
- Length before lower river was straightened;468
miles
- Shoreline of Lake Oahe, second-largest reservoir
on the Missouri: 2,250 miles
- Average amount of water discharged annually
by the river: 25 million acre-feet
- Total storage capacity of six main reservoirs:
73.4 million acre-feet
- Speed of lower Missouri's current before channelization:
2 mph
- After channelization:6 mph
- Amount of silt carried by river past Sioux
City in 1950s: 142
million tons a year
- After dam construction: 4 million tons
a year
- Commercial fish harvest on lower Missouri
in 1947:1.7 million pounds
- Commercial fish harvest in 1963 after final
dam was completed: 342,000 pounds
- Annual value of navigation on lower river:
$6.9 million
- Annual cost of maintaining barge channel:
$7.1 million
- Annual value of recreation on upper river:
$84.7 million
- Annual value of hydropower generated by six
main dams:$750 million
- Acres of farmland in Missouri flood-hazard
zone: 1.4 million
- Number of buildings inflood zone: 35,745
- Number of threatened or endangered species
found in rivercorridor: 8
Sources:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
American Rivers; "Unruly River: Two Centuries of Change
Along the Missouri," by Robert Kelley Schneiders.
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