CONTEMPT  (CONT)

The reductions in Kessler's order would halt navigation on the Missouri, dropping depths at Kansas City, Mo., from about 14 feet to eight feet -- too shallow for barges carrying grain and other cargo to the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

Barge and farming interests say the corps has an obligation to provide enough water for barge shipments.

The sport fishing industry and other upstream interests would benefit from low summer flows that would keep more water in upstream reservoirs in Montana and the Dakotas.

Debate has dragged on for more than a decade over the seasonal changes and whether they should become part of the corps' Master Water Control Manual for operating the Missouri River.

The corps has not revised the master manual since 1979, before the least tern, piping plover and pallid sturgeon were listed as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act, one of the nation's most potent environmental laws.

When the agency announced last week it would refuse to comply with Kessler's order, it also announced new plans to complete master manual revisions by next year.

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