Dollars Key to Mississippi River Lock Controversy

WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2004 (ENS) - A $4.6 billion proposal to build new locks on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and do some ecosystem restoration introduced in the Senate Thursday is running into opposition from a nationwide coalition of environmental organizations.

The legislation was proposed by Senator Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican, and is supported by six other senators, four of them Republicans and two Democrats.

Bond's legislation authorizes $2.3 billion for seven new locks and $1.46 billion for ecosystem restoration. An additional $850 million will be paid from the Inland Waterway Trust Fund which is funded by private users. Half of the cost of the locks will come from the trust fund which collects barge fuel tax.

"By investing in the locks today, we are securing our region's economic future for tomorrow," said Bond. "Modernizing our lock and dam system will produce economic benefits now, including providing 48 million man-hours of construction work. This project will make U.S. producers more efficient and more competitive, while protecting jobs here at home."

Bond's legislation adopts the recommendations of a draft U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report to increase the lock capacity on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and begin a program of ecosystem restoration.

"The Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers are extremely complex navigation and ecological systems. Any proposed changes require collaboration at the highest level of government," said Brigadier General Don Riley, commander of the Corps' Mississippi Valley Division.

Barge travels up the Mississippi River (Photo from the cover of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Draft Report courtesy USACE)

Bond, who chairs the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, said it is important to improve the aging lock and dam system in order to maintain the 1,000 miles of Missouri and Mississippi River shoreline and inland ports, which serve as "Missouri’s arteries to world markets."

But the conservation groups note Army Corps of Engineers figures released in January that show Upper Mississippi River barge traffic declined again in 2003, continuing a 15 year old trend.

They also argue that reaching world markets is not what American producers currently need. "The fastest growing market for American grain is not overseas but domestic processing facilities like ethanol plants," they said in a report on the issue in April.

The report, entitled "Twice Cooked Pork: The Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Navigation Study," concludes that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' study recommending the seven locks is based on "an unprecedented combination of mistakes, miscalculations and misstatements."

"This study sets a new low for water projects," said David Conrad, a water resources specialist with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) who has reviewed water projects for more than 25 years. "There is simply no study in the long, scandal plagued history of this troubled agency that resorts to so much contortion, distortion and falsification."

Two panels of the National Academy of Sciences have found that the study is using unrealistic traffic forecasts and other faulty economic tools since the Army's Inspector General confirmed in 2001 that senior Corps officials had ordered an agency economist to cook the books to support the lock expansion project.

Barges wait to traverse a lock on the Mississippi River. (Photo courtesy USACE)

And that is what Senator Bond says is behind the present need for the new lock system. on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. "The current system is in decline," said Bond. "Jobs, markets and habitat are at stake. In order to address these problems the Corps must be allowed to begin modernizing and improving the locks and dam system now."

Bond said the current water transportation system, was "designed for paddlewheel boats" and was supposed to last 50 years, but it is nearly 70 years old.

But the conservationists argue that many of the locks the Corps would replace have been rehabilitated in recent years, extending their life for decades.

Bond said updating river locks will prepare the country for the projected growth in freight shipping. Highway traffic growth is expected to grow from 11 billion tons to 19 billion tons and rail traffic from two billion to 3.7 billion tons, he estimated.

Bond says the waterways can handle this traffic increase more easily than the highways. "One medium-size tow on the river can carry the same weight as 870 trucks," said Bond. "That’s two diesel engines in exchange for 870 diesel engines. Water transportation is efficient, safe, fuel efficient and protects the air and the environment."

Conservation groups recognized that the bill includes restoration funding, but were skeptical that Congress would appropriate funds for both habitat and expensive new locks.

"We should be restoring, not destroying, this great natural treasure," said Angela Anderson, Upper Basin program director for the Mississippi River Basin Alliance.

"A healthy river supports more than 300,000 jobs in riverside communities - more jobs than are produced by the navigation industry and farming combined," Anderson said. "Congress should focus its attention on restoring the river, not perpetuating the mistakes of the past."

"While this bill takes one step forward by recognizing the need to restore the Mississippi River, it takes five steps back by authorizing new locks that will pile new problems on this once mighty river," said Kate Costenbader, NWF's aquatic habitats restoration coordinator.

Barges being loaded with grain for transport on the Mississippi River. (Photo by Alfred Dulaney courtesy USACE)

"The bill acknowledges what we have been saying for years," said Mark Beorkrem, executive director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. "Small-scale measures can bring immediate relief to river users facing delays at a fraction of the cost of longer locks. Congress should demand that we exhaust these inexpensive options before we build costly new locks."

"We recognize that Mississippi River navigation plays an important role in the Midwest agricultural economy," said Mark Muller with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, "but it makes no sense spending billions of dollars on new locks when there are so many more effective ways of boosting the farm economy."

"This legislation is a perpetual motion machine for wasting taxpayer dollars on the Mississippi River," said Melissa Samet, senior director of water resources for American Rivers. "Senators should be demanding better analysis by the Corps rather than rewarding the agency for cooking the books a second time."

Senator Bond's bill is cosponsored by Republican Senators Jim Talent of MIssouri, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Peter Fizgerald of Illinois, and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. It is also cosponsored by Democratic Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Read the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the UMR-IWW System Navigation Feasibility Study by clicking here. The Corps will hold public meetings in June before preparing the final report late this summer. All comments will be reflected in the final report. A Chief of Engineers Report containing recommendations will be prepared this fall for review by the administration and submission to Congress.

Read "Twice Cooked Pork," by clicking here.