Editorial: Critics Fight WRDA, But Facts Say Support Development

We ended last week’s editorial by saying, “We have for years emphasized water-resource-development benefits in hopes of convincing Congress to pass a WRDA bill with major funding-level increases…The National Waterways Alliance letter to Rep. [Peter] Visclosky brings to light some new and important variations….”

Arguments put forth by environment worshippers will continue. Every river project degrades nature, they will insist. Even though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is adding millions for environmental restoration, these people will never agree that a project to improve water transportation is worthwhile.

The argument that river traffic has declined is true, but it is based on a temporary condition, which will change. River traffic has fluctuated for years. Admittedly, there are waterways whose transport function and river conditions degenerated along with a genuine lack of transportation need. But that is not the case on the Missouri River, nor on the Upper Mississippi River, nor, indeed, on the U.S. water transportation system in general. To the contrary, the infrastructure is vital to the nation’s economic good health and should not be squandered by people who are determined to disagree.

Almost all federal research points to huge growth in transportation needs during the next 20 years. The global population explosion shores up that finding.

The NWA letter says that each year, the maritime transportation system moves more than $2 trillion of domestic and international freight. We’ve repeated that often. But the eye-openers are in the details. The freight includes more than 280 million tons of coal, 85 percent of which is used to generate electricity. It also includes more than 60 percent of our nation’s grain exports.

All maintenance dredging of our ports and harbors—100 percent—is supposed to be financed through the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. The fund has annual receipts of about $1.3 billion. For fiscal 2008, only $735 million is targeted for spending. In the meantime, “The lack of adequate channel depths and widths not only raises the cost of commodities and hinders the competitiveness of our manufacturers, it seriously endangers the lives of our seamen and mariners on the Great Lakes and elsewhere,” the alliance emphasizes.

Flooding is still one of the most costly natural disasters in America. We know that millions of our residents, especially in the Lower Mississippi Valley, depend on a vast network of levees and upstream reservoirs to protect their homes and businesses. Since 1928, flood-control projects have prevented more than $700 billion in riverine and coastal damages. For every $1 spent for flood control, almost $8 in potential damages is prevented. In the Mississippi Valley and tributary system, the return on investment is $24 for every $1 spent.

The Corps is the nation’s largest operator of hydroelectric power dams, which produce enough electricity to supply 4.64 million homes with power and produce $533 million in federal treasury revenues. This is largely an incidental benefit of structures whose primary purpose is navigation or flood control.

Corps activities boost the national economy. In the early 1920s and 1930s, flood control became a national priority. Since then, supplying water and recreation have expanded the agency’s involvement. More Americans visit the thousands of Corps-operated recreational sites every year than all of the national parks, spending $15 billion on trip expenses and durable goods. This spending supports 500,000 jobs and generates $17 billion in income.

This agency that does all of this, the Corps, is the terrible ogre that critics have targeted for decades. It is the agency whose methods they want to change completely so they can gain control of how the Corps does business. Keep in mind that the Corps is the only government agency that evaluates its projects so thoroughly and involves so many individuals in project approval.

This is the agency whose budget has been shortchanged for decades and has found its operations far more difficult since Hurricane Katrina’s visit. The cost for operation and maintenance (O&M) of our rivers is rising annually, while records show maintenance is almost at an all-time low. This adversely affects the reliability of our transportation network at a time when a $1 investment in O&M can return an average of $14.10 in transportation savings. That’s a $14–1 return.

The benefits produced by water-resource development are well known. Yet critics would ignore the facts and opt to tear down an agency that has served well for more than 200 years. They reject studies that forecast huge increases in transportation demands. They reject the fact that water transportation, when properly employed, can improve our environment by reducing air pollution, slowing down the ever-increasing growth of traffic congestion on our highways, and reducing the amount of natural resources consumed as a result of vehicular traffic.

Considering the potential good that can come from increasing the Corps civil works budget to $8 billion for fiscal 2008 and thereafter, it is little enough to spend to improve the economic health of an entire nation. After all, $8 billion plus has been targeted for the restoration of Florida swamps alone.

Congress should pass a sensible WRDA with an increased budget. As Abraham Lincoln, once a boatman, might say (again): “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

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