Moves on the Mississippi
By Sara Muri

Slow moving legislation may still hold promise for updates on the Mississippi River lock-and-dam system.

The massiveness of the Melvin Price Lock and Dam, near Alton, Ill., is a harbinger for the entire river system. This lock and dam is one of the three 1,200-foot-long big brothers to the several other 600-foot lock and dams on the upper Mississippi River.

If the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2007 passes, the upper Mississippi will be spotted with seven other 1,200-foot locks. This bill, which has been meandering through Congress in some form for the past 7 years, would authorize $1.79 billion to construct 1,200-foot locks at Lock and Dams 20 – 25 on the Mississippi River and the LaGrange and Peoria locks on the Illinois River. In addition, $1.58 billion would be authorized for environmental restoration and $235 million for small-scale navigation upgrades. As this was written, the U.S. House of Representatives has sent the bill through subcommittees, and it is awaiting House floor action. The Senate is expected to discuss the bill this spring. In 2006, the bill ended the session in a conference committee.

As Congress debates the future of the locks and dams, the structures continue to age. The locks and dams on the Mississippi River were constructed during the Great Depression, beginning in 1933. They are essentially a stairway of water, making it possible for barges and other boats to step down the 400-foot drop in river elevation between St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minn. and St. Louis, Mo. There are 29 locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River, creating a 9-foot-deep navigation channel for heavy barge traffic.

In the 70 years since the first dams were built, transportation, conservation and social situations have changed greatly. Today, the average barges that float down the river carrying agricultural commodities, coal, metal, chemicals and other cargo are 1,100 feet long, but the majority of the lock and dams are only 600 feet long. This size mismatch forces barges to break into smaller pieces to float through—a slow and costly process.

The river as a highway
Obviously, a key group directly affected by the subject is farmers. According to Garrett Hawkins, director of national legislative affairs for Missouri Farm Bureau, more than 60 percent of U.S. grain exports are transported via the Mississippi River.

River transportation is considered one of the most economical choices for the millions of bushels of agricultural crops that are harvested each year in the Midwest. Much of those commodities leave the United States to supply other parts of the world. “Almost 96 percent of the world’s population resides outside of our borders; thus it is essential that we have a waterborne transportation system that can efficiently and reliably deliver our products to market,” Hawkins said.

The U.S. agriculture industry cannot continue to compete effectively internationally using a system that was built in the 1930s, he said. “As the locks continue to deteriorate, shutdowns and delays are going to become more frequent, which means we will face lower prices, decreases in domestic demand and lost exports.”

Hawkins said that while the United States is spending extensive time determining whether to invest in the nation’s waterway system, other key competitors such as Brazil, Argentina and China are moving forward to develop their infrastructures to lower transportation costs and increase exports.

In 2006, the National Corn Growers Association figured 109 million bushels of corn traveled down the Mississippi River. “This issue is important to the economy of the Midwest, Missouri and the nation as a whole,” said Paul Bertels, director of biotechnology and economic analysis for NCGA. “It is one of our top concerns.”
He explained it takes an hour and a half for a 1,100-foot tow to lock through a 600-foot lock and 20 minutes for the same barge to lock through a 1,200-foot lock. During harvest and other high-demand times, barges will wait hours before they can begin the locking process, due to a “river rush hour.”

“Farmers are paying for the inefficiency at the locks,” said Bertels.

While U.S. corn supply continues to feed developing export markets, domestic demand for corn has seen an unprecedented spike due to ethanol production. Although more corn will stay in the United States, Bertels said that the lock and dam upgrade is still needed. “We will need the river to ship ethanol and DDGs,” he said.

An economy booster
The estimated $2 billion price tag for the modernization of the locks and dams on the upper Mississippi is large, but it will be split between two groups, according to Andrew Riester, vice president of the Waterways Council Inc. The $2 billion will be shared 50/50 by tax payers and commercial-river users. The additional $1.58 billion for environmental restoration will be funded through taxes.

“Carriers pay a 20-cents-per-gallon diesel fuel tax,” Riester said. “The money goes into a trust fund to pay for half the cost of any construction or rehabilitation.”

The Waterways Council was founded 5 years ago because it believed the fund—called the Inland Waterways Trust Fund—had been under-investing its assets. “There is a great surplus in the trust fund,” he said. “We have priority infrastructure needs and need to keep the promise to the barge operators who are paying their part.” Essentially, the money is already available for the proposed project on the barge-operator side.

Riester said the nation’s inland water system is a great economic generator. “The river is low-cost transportation,” he said. “Low-value commodities, such as steel, coal, iron and petroleum need low-cost transportation to make [shipping the products] economically feasible.”

The fact that only one major path exists for commodities to get to New Orleans for export also makes Riester believe the lock-and-dam upgrade is needed. “There is one route if you have grain in Minneapolis/St. Paul; there is no other route.” He said commodities move according to pull from demand, creating the barge traffic jams at the locks.

MARC 2000, the Midwest Area River Coalition, is another organization that touts the importance of the locks and dams for the U.S. economy. “Without a strong, vibrant river, America’s economic strength is compromised,” said Connie Waterman, MARC 2000 spokesperson. “Lock conditions cause increased transportation costs and our ability to export declines.”

Waterman said that by building the seven new locks, great economic growth will be stimulated. “It will secure 400,000 existing jobs into the future, create at least 48 million man hours in the construction process and reduce transportation costs,” she said.

The river as an ecosystem
Many supporters of the modernization of locks and dams also see its environmental impact. “For years we have told the environmental community, ‘Let’s approach this as a win-win situation,’” Bertels said. “We asked, ‘What is the most economical, environmentally friendly option?’” In most cases, it is to move cargo by barge on the river.

According to NCGA, 1 ton of cargo moves about 500 miles per gallon of fuel on a barge, whereas a train can only travel 200 miles and a semi trailer 60 miles. Following those statistics, barges also release 20 times less nitrous oxide, nine times less carbon monoxide and seven times less hydrocarbons than other modes of transportation. Bertels added that barge transportation does not impede on the average American like additional semi-trucks and trains would. Barges also can carry considerably more cargo at a time. It takes 225 jumbo-hopper train cars and 870 large semis to equal the carrying capacity of an average 15-barge tow.

With the possible construction of the seven 1,200-foot lock and dams, some worry about the effects on the rivers’ ecosystems. Yet, Justine Barati, public affairs specialist for the Corps’ Rock Island District, said the Corps is committed to maintaining, protecting and restoring river habitats. “We are doing a lot of things to minimize environmental impacts and, hopefully, improve the environment as part of this program,” she said.

The Corps has recommended a $5.3 billion appropriation to improve the Mississippi and Illinois rivers’ ecosystems during the next 50 years. Barati said this money would be used for island building, water level management, island shore protection, floodplain restoration and continued study and monitoring of the ecosystems.

The other side of the river
Regardless of the Corps’ promises to improve the ecosystems surrounding the rivers, several groups and individuals still oppose the possible lock-and-dam construction project.

“I don’t believe the Corps has justification for spending the money on lock expansion,” said Mark Beorkrem, upper basin program director for the Mississippi River Basin Alliance. He said that the Corps’ responsibility is to keep the river healthy for business.

Beorkrem’s group offers less-expensive measures to help alleviate lost time, and thus, lost money on the river. Beorkrem believes well-trained barge crews can maneuver through the locks relatively quicker and with additional helper boats (boats located at the locks to assist in the locking-through process), locking times could be greatly reduced. Other suggestions include barge traffic scheduling.

Another opponent of the project is Donald Sweeney, associate director for the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Sweeney worked with the Corps of Engineers for the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Navigation System Feasibility Study from 1993 until 1998.

“My responsibilities included estimating the National Economic Development (NED) benefits associated with potential investments in the lock-and-dam infrastructure to reduce anticipated increases in system congestion,” he said. “We found that the lock upgrades would have NED costs significantly greater than the NED benefits that they might produce by decreasing transportation costs.”

Sweeney said that while lock queues will be reduced and traffic can, there will be many economic cons. “The construction of expanded locks will disrupt existing system traffic during some 20 years of construction,” he said.

This issue will directly affect the number of barge owners and operators who float up and down the Mississippi each year. But, the exact number is hard to identify. Sweeney said barge transportation has decreased significantly during the past decade, by nearly 50 percent.

That’s a claim the Corps’ Barati counters. “Barge traffic has increased significantly since the inception of the lock-and-dam system and is expected to continue to increase over the next 50 years,” she said.

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