本月早些时候，从明尼苏达州到路易斯安那州的市长们带着两党的信息前往华盛顿，保护密西西比河不仅仅是一个环境问题，而是一个国家安全问题。
市长们会见了立法者和联邦官员，包括环境保护署和国土安全部，作为他们每年密西西比河城市的一部分&城镇倡议飞入，后来与美国广播公司新闻谈到日益增长的压力面临的河流走廊。
密西西比河横跨10个州，全长2300多英里，是美国最重要的经济走廊之一的主干。根据市长联盟共享的数据，河流系统每年产生近5000亿美元的收入，并直接支持约150万个就业岗位。
它的水域还承载着美国农业出口的巨大份额，使这条河成为美国和全球食品供应链的中心。根据国家公园管理局的数据，密西西比河流域占美国农业出口的92%，包括世界谷物和大豆出口的78%。
成立于2012年，密西西比河城市&城镇倡议将沿河走廊的地方政府聚集在一起，协调包括清洁水、经济稳定、抗灾能力和粮食安全在内的优先事项。
然而，今年的华盛顿之行有了新的紧迫性。
几位市长表示，人工智能的兴起、基础设施的下降、对水和能源需求的增长、影响燃料价格的中东地缘政治紧张局势以及越来越严重的天气事件给该地区带来了前所未有的压力。
讨论中提出的一个问题是美国西部缺水地区的兴趣越来越大。
“科罗拉多河流域正着眼于密西西比河流域，将水输送到拉斯维加斯的凤凰城地区——这些地方是非洲大陆上最不安全的地方，”MRCTI和一名密苏里州代表，告诉ABC新闻。
他补充说，他们“正在研究密西西比河流域未来的水供应。”
联盟共同主席、阿肯色州布莱斯维尔市长梅利莎·洛根说，随着水需求的增长，河流系统已经成为一个国家安全问题。
“这水对于国家的安全是绝对必要的，而你却不负责任地把它移到另一个流域，对吗?这使国家处于危险之中，”洛根告诉美国广播公司新闻。
几个主要的美国水系统已经由州际契约管理，包括五大湖水契约和特拉华河流域契约。这些通常由国会批准的具有法律约束力的协议，有助于建立管理和保护共享水资源的规则。
密西西比河契约的支持者表示，类似的框架可以帮助协调10个州的政策，这些州依赖一个支持国内和国际贸易和食品供应链的流域。
“这就是为什么这些市长正在寻求一项密西西比河契约，以保护密西西比河，”Wellenkamp说。
他指出，他所在的州通过了一项关于此类协议的法律。
“其他九个州也不会落后太多，因为这是未来真正的风险，”Wellenkamp补充道。
除了水资源，许多市长表示，灾害成本的上升已经成为沿河社区的另一个紧迫问题。
布莱斯维尔市长洛根表示，保护河流需要跨州协调，因为沿河社区经常难以获得跨州项目的联邦资金。
“通常，他们是一个州接一个州做的，”洛根说，他指的是联邦资助项目。“但这些影响是跨流域的。”
根据MRCTI材料，自2005年以来，密西西比河走廊沿线的自然灾害已经造成了超过2500亿美元的损失。
路易斯安那州维达利亚市市长布兹·克拉夫特(Buz Craft)表示，当地领导人在寻求联邦灾难援助时经常面临拖延。
“我们需要国会停止改变目标，例如，当我们遇到问题时，无论是龙卷风还是飓风，”他说。
克拉夫特指出，改变白宫管理也可以让他们回到原点。
“就在你准备为过去的灾难获得资金时，他们说‘哦，现在你必须经历这个’，从头开始申请这个项目，这真是一场激烈的竞争，”他说。
全球不稳定也开始体现在沿河居民的日常开销中。几位市长表示，密西西比河沿岸的燃料价格最近一夜之间上涨了约20美分。市长们说，这些上涨可能会迅速波及食品价格，因为美国的大部分食品供应是通过卡车、铁路或驳船沿密西西比河系统运输的。
与此同时，一些社区也在为另一种压力做准备，即人工智能基础设施的快速扩张。为人工智能系统提供动力的数据中心需要大量的电力和水来冷却，这对当地的电网和水系统提出了新的更高的要求。
伊利诺伊州奥尔顿市市长大卫·戈因斯说，公司已经开始在他的城市探索潜在的地点。
“我认为重要的是走在它的前面，走在它的前面，”他说。“这次会议是及时的，我们可以通过不同的公司和组织获得我们可以支配的资源，开始准备条例，开始建立某种框架或基础，因为它即将到来。”
对于聚集在华盛顿的市长们来说，他们希望政策制定者听到的信息很简单:密西西比河的重要性远远超出了其沿岸的城市。
伊利诺伊州昆西市市长琳达·摩尔说:“如果你不住在密西西比河上，你就不一定了解密西西比河流域对我们整个大陆的重要性。”“世界上每12个人中就有一个人靠驳船上沿密西西比河上下流动的食物或从河流本身获得食物。”
对于本周前往华盛顿的市长们来说，密西西比河不仅仅是一条水道，它还是一条经济生命线，其水流塑造了美国全国的农业、贸易和社区。
明尼苏达州布鲁克林公园的市长霍利斯·温斯顿说，这条河的影响远远超出了它所涉及的10个州，并可能延伸到未来很长一段时间。
“如果水资源得不到保护，我们不知道15年、20年、30年后会对经济产生什么影响，”温斯顿说。
Mississippi River mayors warn AI, fuel costs and drought are straining key waterway
Mayors from Minnesota to Louisiana traveled to Washington earlier this month with a bipartisan message that protecting the Mississippi River is not just an environmental issue, it is a matter of national security.
The mayors met with lawmakers and federal officials, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of their annual Mississippi River Cities&Towns Initiative fly-in, and later spoke with ABC News about growing pressures facing the river corridor.
Stretching more than 2,300 miles through 10 states, the Mississippi River forms the backbone of one of the most important economic corridors in America. According to data shared by the mayors' coalition, the river system generates nearly $500 billion in annual revenue and directly supports about 1.5 million jobs.
Its waters also carry a massive share of the nation's agricultural exports, making the river central to U.S. and global food supply chains. According to the National Park Service, the Mississippi River Basin accounts for 92% of America's agricultural exports, including 78% of the world's exports of grains and soybeans.
Founded in 2012, the Mississippi River Cities&Towns Initiative (MRCTI) brings together local governments along the river corridor to coordinate priorities including clean water, economic stability, disaster resilience and food security.
However, this year's trip to Washington came with new urgency.
Several mayors said the rise of artificial intelligence, declining infrastructure, growing demand for water and energy, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affecting fuel prices and increasingly severe weather events are placing unprecedented pressures on the region.
One concern raised during the discussions was growing interest from water-scarce regions in the western U.S.
"The Colorado River Basin is looking at the Mississippi River Basin to move water into areas of Phoenix, Vegas -- the places that are most water insecure on the continent," Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of MRCTI anda Missouri state representative,told ABC News.
He added they "are looking into the Mississippi River basin for their water supply for the future."
Coalition co-chair Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville, Arkansas, said the river system has become a national security concern as water demands grow.
"This water is absolutely essential for the security of the country, and you move it to another basin irresponsibly, right? That puts the nation at risk," Logan told ABC News.
Several major U.S. water systems are already governed by interstate compacts, including the Great Lakes Water Compact and the Delaware River Basin Compact. These legally binding agreements, often approved by Congress, help to establish rules for managing and protecting shared water resources.
Supporters of a Mississippi River Compact say a similar framework could help coordinate policy across the 10 states that rely on a basin that supports national and international trade and food supply chains.
"That's why these mayors are pursuing a Mississippi River Compact to protect the Mississippi," Wellenkamp said.
He noted that his state passed a law for such an agreement.
"The other nine states aren't far behind, because this is a real risk in the future," Wellenkamp added.
Beyond water access, many mayors said the rising cost of disasters has become another urgent concern for communities along the river.
Logan, Blytheville's mayor, said protecting the river requires key coordination across state lines, as communities along the river often struggle to secure federal funding for projects that cross state boundaries.
"Typically, they do it state by state by state," Logan said, referring to federal funding programs. "But these impacts are multi-state by watershed."
According to MRCTI materials, natural disasters along the Mississippi River corridor have caused more than $250 billion in losses since 2005.
Mayor Buz Craft of Vidalia, Louisiana, said local leaders often face delays when seeking federal disaster assistance.
"We need Congress to quit changing the goal post, for example, when we have an issue, whether it's a tornado or hurricane," he said.
Changing White House administrations can also put them back to square one, Craft noted.
"Just when you are about to get that funding for that past disaster they say 'Oh, now you got to go through this,' start all over and apply to this program, and it's really a rat race," he said.
Global instabilityis also beginning to show up in everyday costs for residents along the river. Several of the mayors said fuel prices along the Mississippi River recently jumped about 20 cents overnight. Those increases can quickly ripple through food prices, the mayors said, because much of the nation's food supply moves by truck, rail or barge along the Mississippi River system.
Meanwhile, some communities are also preparing for a different kind of pressure, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The data centers that power AI systems require massive amounts of electricity and water for cooling, placing new increased demands on local power grids and water systems.
Mayor David Goins of Alton, Illinois, said companies have already begun exploring potential sites in his city.
"I think it's important to get in front of it and get ahead of it," he said. "This meeting right here is timely to get the resources that we can, that we can have at our disposal through different companies, organizations, to start preparing ordinances and start getting some type of framework or groundwork, because it's coming."
For the mayors gathered in Washington, the message they hoped policymakers would hear was simple: the Mississippi River's importance stretches far beyond the cities along its banks.
"If you don't live on the Mississippi River, you don't necessarily understand the importance of the Mississippi River Basin to our entire continent," Quincy, Illinois, Mayor Linda Moore said. "One in 12 people in the world is fed by food that flows up and down the Mississippi on a barge or from the river itself."
For the mayors who traveled to Washington this week, the Mississippi River is more than a waterway -- it is an economic lifeline whose currents shape American agriculture, trade and communities across the country.
Mayor Hollies Winston of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, said the river's influence reaches far beyond the 10 states it touches, and may stretch long into the future.
"If that water is not protected, we don't know the impact that that has on the economy 15, 20, 30 years from now," Winston said.
