Mission
The Sector Lower Mississippi River Waterways Division has an extremely large area of responsibility of any waterways division in the US Coast Guard. With over 2,200 miles of navigable waterways to manage, its a large scale management operation on a day to day basis.
Waterways Management activities include:
Aids To Navigation: This department helps manage the Aids to Navigation units located throughout the 6 state area to ensure our rivers have the most up to date navigational aids configuration possible. This configuration can differ greatly throughout the year depending on waterway depths that are in a state of constant change. This requires depth adjustments to be made to our floating aids every few weeks or sometimes even more frequently still.
Marine Event Permitting: For any waterway events, including boat races, kayak and canoe events, on water fireworks displays, fireworks displays near a waterway, fishing tournaments, or any other activities near a federal waterway, an application must be filled out. The entire process for some events can take up to 120 days. Please fill out an application well in advance to be sure if needed, the proper laws are enacted to make your event legal. Once you've applied, we will then review the application and determine whether it meets the requirements of a marine event and provide a response to the application and provide any other assistance if necessary. The link below can be used to go to the online application. In box 25, please be sure to use the proper Captain of the Port Zone. For the Lower Mississippi River, Arkansas River, Red River (Louisana), White River, Ouachita or Black River, or the Yazoo River, please use Lower Mississippi River (Memphis) as your choice to ensure we get the application in a timely manner.
Marine Event Applications
Waterway Action Plans:
The current plans can be viewed at the links below.
1: 2020 Mississippi River WAP
2: 2018 Red River WAP
3: 2018 Ouachita/Black River WAP
Current River Conditions:
LMR Hydrographs - 2 Days of Rain
LMR Hydrographs - 16 Days of Rain
Current Buoy Placement Completion Dates
RR Hydrographs - 2 Days of Rain
Ouachita River Hydrographs - 2 Days of Rain
Black River Hydrographs - 2 Days of Rain
MKARNS Hydrographs - 2 Days of Rain
MKARNS Daily Average Release Forecast
Notice to Mariners:
Click to See Current Broadcasts to Mariners
US Army Corps of Engineers Permit Review
Safety and Security Zone Implementation
Drafting Field Regulations
Coordination of Dead Ship Tows