House OKs Overhaul Plan for River Locks

The House voted Thursday to approve an extensive waterway navigation project, a $3.6-billion undertaking to ease shipping on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Environmental and taxpayer groups have opposed the project.

Barge operators and farmers want to speed grain to Gulf of Mexico ports. The Mississippi River is the cheapest route to export commodities such as corn, soybeans, coal, chemicals and construction materials.

Government scientists have said that grain exports probably would not increase enough to economically justify the lock overhaul plan. House members overwhelmingly agreed to the plan anyway as part of a bill to authorize spending $10 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects nationwide over the next 15 years.

“If a project is broke, it’s time to fix it,” said Rep. Kenny C. Hulshof (R-Mo.). “You don’t wait to see if it gets better. Traffic has been increasing on the inland waterways system everywhere except in the upper Mississippi because of the declining condition of these locks and dams.”

Rep. Jerry F. Costello (D-Ill.) agreed: “We do not need another study; we do not need further delay.”

The bill, giving lawmakers’ districts in nearly every state an economic boost, passed by a 406-14 vote. Fourteen members did not vote.

Senate consideration of an $11.7-billion version of the measure is expected this summer.

“It is not fiscally conservative to let certain assets deteriorate,” said Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.), chairman of a House subcommittee on water resources and environment.

Before the vote, the White House urged the House to approve the lock overhaul project only if states shared half the costs, as with the 30-year, $8.4-billion Florida Everglades restoration effort.

Among other projects, the House bill authorizes spending $1.8 billion to replace locks that can slow barges by up to two hours, $1.58 billion for ecosystem restoration and $235 million to improve several upstream locks.

Skeptics pointed to a decline in barge traffic by more than a third from 15 years ago.

“Traffic on the river is not going up,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). With Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), he tried unsuccessfully to require more economic justifications before the project could proceed. Two reports from the National Academy of Sciences, issued last October and in December 2003, said the Army Corps did not make a good enough case for the project.

An academy panel in 2002 recommended the Army Corps submit all project studies for review by outside experts. That came after an Army Corps economist accused agency officials of doctoring a $54-million study of the Mississippi River’s navigation system to justify expanding the barge locks.

The Army’s inspector general also concluded the Army Corps had tilted its analysis to favor Midwestern agribusiness interests.

“Pork is king. That’s what this bill is cobbled together with,” said Steve Ellis, a vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, which counted 757 projects and studies in the $10-billion bill.