By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

ST. LOUIS — The Inland Waterways Users Board unanimously adopted a comprehensive package of recommendations from the Army Corps of Engineers and an advisory panel consisting of river transportation industry representatives that will improve the U.S. inland navigation system for the next 20 years.

The recommended reforms – which were approved April 13 – include new funding parameters for current and future lock and dam construction, which was authorized by the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2007. An increase of between 30 to 45 percent in the existing fuel tax of 20 cents per gallon paid by barge operators was approved to help preserve the existing 50 percent industry – 50 percent federal cost-sharing formula for new lock construction and major lock rehabilitation projects costing $100 million or more.

Around 150 industry stakeholders, including the National Grain & Feed Association (NGFA) and the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA), are in full support of the new funding mechanism and other reforms the Inland Waterways Capital Development Plan sets forth. 

“This consensus-based report and recommendations are being sent to Congress and the Administration and if adopted, will better address the needs of the entire inland waterways navigation system and provide more dollars for greatly needed infrastructure improvements,” said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the NCGA. “The plan makes sense because it prioritizes projects, uses a 50-50 cost share formula using a fuel tax by river users and federal dollars, and puts a cost-share cap on all new lock construction projects that would preserve the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by preventing the industry from having to fund significant cost overruns.”

The trust fund had been severely drained over the past few years, according to Paul Rohde, vice president of the Waterways Council, Inc., a trade association representing shippers and operators who move agricultural and manufacturing products on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

“This (plan) is the best chance we have to get construction of new locks. The reality is that the Corps is backed up with construction projects already under way. Without this plan, over the next 20 years the Corps would be able to finish about seven projects. With this plan in place, that number jumps up to 25 projects the Corps could work on and complete,” said Rohde.

“The plan is a way forward that is desperately needed.”
Mark J. Carr, chairman of the NFGA’s Waterborne Commerce Committee, lauded the Inland Waterways Users Board for approving the reforms. “The plan recognizes that increased funding must be accompanied by significant and meaningful reforms to improve the efficiency of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ operations and its cost-management of projects to protect against unabated cost overruns and delays on large new construction projects,” stated Carr.

The Inland Waterways Capital Development Plan was created as an answer to the Obama Administration’s unpopular recommendation of a per-barge, per-lockage tax on commercial river users to help fund WRDA and other river infrastructure projects.

“That plan was onerous to rivers that have locks on them while yet giving a free pass to open rivers without locks. It was inequitable,” commented Rohde, “and would have severely damaged the tax structure. Right now, a tow traveling from St. Paul to St. Louis and back again is paying essentially about $12,000 in taxes. Under the Administration’s plan, that figure would have jumped up to over $70,000.

“You would have been moving traffic off of the river. Users would have reacted to a five-fold increase in taxes and shifted to shipping by rail or truck. This approach was a much more collaborative effort that included the commercial users of the river and the (Corps). It’s a much more sustainable path forward.” 

WRDA 2007 authorized spending $3.6 billion to construct seven, new 1,200-foot locks on the Illinois and upper Mississippi rivers and for ecosystem restoration of the waterway. However, the funds have never been appropriated by Congress. The NFGA and Rohde both indicated that the recommendations in the capital development plan could end up incorporated into another WRDA bill for Congress to consider later this year. However, a full congressional calendar coupled with an election year and unprecedented partisanship on nearly every legislative issue in front of the General Assembly could keep a new WRDA off of Congress’ radar this year, said Rohde.

“We’re eager to get legislative activity on the Hill,” he added.
Approximately one-third of total U.S. agricultural production is exported, with 60 percent of those exports transiting the upper Mississippi-Illinois River system each year. Significant quantities of fertilizer and other agricultural input items and supplies are also moved by barge, the NFGA noted.