At
its board of directors meeting held in Houston recently, Waterways Council
Inc.’s directors unanimously endorsed the American Waterworks Act, proposed
in late October by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to modernize America’s inland waterways and
ports.
The
new waterways funding plan would:
• Remove the requirement
that Olmsted Lock and Dam be funded using Inland Waterways Trust Fund
revenues (currently Olmsted Lock on the Ohio River has been consuming the
vast majority of all the annual funding available for inland lock construction
and rehabilitation and removing it from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund will
free up revenue to address needed lock and dam repairs across the country);
• Provide
full Federal funding for maintenance of harbors up to 50'
deep (currently it is only full funding up to 45', but the Panama
Canal expansion
will accommodate ships with a 50' depth);
• Establish
an accounting method for revenues from the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund that will allow those revenues to offset annual Harbor Maintenance
spending;
• Speed up construction permit
approval and provide states with the ability to appeal slow
moving regulatory decision making;
• Authorize
a five-year construction program to expand harbors to accommodate the
larger ships expected after the Panama Canal expansion;
• Increase
revenue to Inland Waterways Trust Fund in a manner consistent with the
agreement between the Inland Waterways Users and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
• Require
Inland Waterways construction projects follow the plan agreed to by the Inland
Waterways Users and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
• Fund
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and Inland Waterways Trust Fund construction projects
to authorized widths and depths as part of the five-year construction program;
and
• Fund
landside infrastructure at ports.
“The
American Waterworks Act follows many of the original recommendations of the
Capital Development Plan, as well as WAVE 4 legislation in the House,” WCI
President/CEO Michael J. Toohey said in a statement. “WCI applauds
Senators Alexander and Graham, for their strong leadership in addressing the
critical needs of the inland waterways and ports system. This legislation
will create American jobs, will enable growth in U.S. exports and will continue
to fuel the economic engine that the waterways have become in the
transportation supply chain.
“The
present business model for modernizing our lock and dam infrastructure is
broken, with too few lock and dam projects being built on time and on budget,”
Toohey continued. “Recognizing the failings in the current system, this
bill will modernize our critically important inland navigation infrastructure
and in so doing will benefit the U.S. agricultural sector, our construction
industry, our energy sector, our environment, our economy, and all the
beneficiaries of the waterways system,” Toohey continued.
Senators
Alexander and Graham will seek bipartisan support of the bill and will consider
adding the American Waterworks Act to the Senate WRDA bill or any other relevant
legislative vehicle.