Editorial: WRDA A Reality, Now For The Next Step

It is fairly easy, after winning a long-term legislative battle for the Water Resources Development Act, to heave a sigh of relief and rest on our laurels. It is the last thing we should do. Resting on our laurels will not get the job done. We still must create an atmosphere in which the need for maintenance and modernization of Upper Mississippi and Illinois river facilities is widely understood.

With the nation focusing on a forthcoming presidential election and major issues such as national security, border protection, health care, et al, it will take some doing to keep the vital need for water resource development on the table. The solving of any of these problems requires resolute planning and, of course, buckets full of money.

The logic with water resource development is simple. There is only so much money. There is a gigantic backlog of projects to be considered. After taking so long to get WRDA passed, there may be projects on the list that need be scuttled. Others may need revision due to changing conditions. There are, obviously, crucial, deserving projects that need to go to the head of the list. It is the validity of a project, not the length of time on the backlog roster, that should prevail.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is extremely well-qualified and prepared to sort the list—which it has done numerous times already—to highlight projects deserving immediate attention. Still, the Corps cannot do projects Congress does not fund. Congress, which is always subject to influence from its constituents, needs to remain steadfast in the belief that WRDA projects worth passing are worth funding. That resource development seems not very glamorous doesn’t reduce its importance.

There has been long-term neglect of the river system. To be sure, we do read about ongoing projects here and there, but often they reflect last-ditch efforts to hold facilities together when in reality they should be replaced. Many navigation structures are well beyond their design life and require maintenance more often than they did during earlier years. Maintenance, however, does not spell improvement in terms of eliminating traffic bottlenecks modern structures can cure. Doing so will enable our water transportation infrastructure to continue to live up to its potential.

When bottlenecks occur on highways, people and products arrive late at their destinations. Fuel costs skyrocket. When they occur on the river, results are virtually the same. Any time we experience ongoing delays, there is reason to believe that it will take more than mere maintenance to resolve the problems. The reality is that people are quicker to recognize the need for eliminating bottlenecks on highways and in communications. Most people in our country have never stood on the bank of a river and watched a tow go by with its thousands of tons of cargo. How could they be expected to appreciate this grand benefit made possible only by navigable waters?

Just as dedicated promoters of a better environment have taken steps to make educational programs on the environment popular, the river establishment should work with educators to fold into state and national history education programs information about the role water transportation played (and still plays) in the economic well-being of our nation. How different would the Lewis and Clark celebrations have been had there not been navigable waterways? How many American cities would not be where they are today if there had been no rivers to facilitate the movement of people and cargo? How much longer would it have taken to settle the West?

The poem Everybody Knows a Choo Choo begins with the sentence: “To the riverman’s dismay, The evidence is plain; While darn few know a towboat, Most people know a train.”

That is still all too true today. We don’t know the answer, but if there is a way to get more people (including congressional delegates) to the riverbank so they have a true understanding of water transportation, we need to make use of it. And if, while they stand there watching a 15-barge tow go by, some knowledgeable person can tell them that just one of those barges carries the equivalent of 15 jumbo rail hopper cars or 58 large semis, perhaps they can understand how barge transportation can keep the number of trucks on highways from growing so fast. All told, that tow could move the equivalent cargo of 225 rail unit cars or 870 semis. Could anyone not be impressed by that? What would they think if they learned that toxic cargoes could be moved by barge to help reduce the number of trains and trucks carrying the same cargoes near their cities?

If readers believe we have written most of this before, they can rest assured that we have. But we are engaged in a never-ending battle that requires determination to win. There is still a big job ahead.

The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)