Memphis Mayor AC Wharton endorsed the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) when he attended the Mississippi River Commissions public hearing in Memphis on Aug. 20, 2013. The MRCTI is a mayoral-led effort to create a coordinated voice for the Mississippi River. Thus far, nearly 60 river cities from Minnesota to Louisiana have signed on. Mayor Wharton, a co-chair of the Initiative, said the group will be pushing for dedicated funding for dredging the river’s many ports. He added that they will also seek dedicated funding in case of a catastrophic failure of any of the locks and dams on the upper reaches of the river. The problem of hypoxia in the river caused by agricultural runoff and a pre-disaster plan to mitigate calamities associated with a wide variety of natural disasters are also on their agenda.