Editorial: Critics Attack Corps On Ohio River Project

Some Upper Mississippi River folks say that Ohio River people know how important the Ohio is to their livelihood, so there is seldom opposition to river projects there. A report in the Henderson (Ky.) Gleaner indicates that honeymoon may be over. The environmental groups are still waging war against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Gleaner reports that the Ohio River Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation are accusing the Corps of “inflating barge traffic figures to justify the expansion of locks at two Ohio River dams.” Critics say expansion would harm wildlife and waste taxpayer money.

That plan is to double the length of 600-foot auxiliary locks at the Greenup Locks and Dam east of Portsmouth, Ohio, and the John T. Myers Locks and Dam near Evansville, Ind., at a cost of $356 million and for the purpose of eliminating delays. Each facility has a 1,200-foot main lock chamber and a 600-foot auxiliary chamber. It’s the same thing the Corps wants to do on the Upper Mississippi/Illinois rivers.

Delays cost money. A 5,000-hp. boat can burn 5,000 gallons of fuel daily.

A concept that seems difficult for river-industry critics to comprehend is that the 600-foot locks were appropriate when they were first built, but now the Corps believes extending them is prudent. We don’t expect 1950s vintage interstate highways to serve 2006 vintage vehicular traffic efficiently. Why should we expect that of undersized river structures?

The conservation groups disagree with Corps traffic figures. One Corps estimate showed steady traffic increases at the Portsmouth-area dam, rising from 70.8 million tons in 1996 to 90.5 million tons in 2010. Critics say actual traffic counts have dropped from 67.3 million in 1996 to 64.5 million tons in 2004. The critics are right—to a point. The year 2005 was good on the Ohio, and so far 2006 is keeping up the pace.

Current records at Greenup indicate the facility locked through 70.8 million tons in 2005, an increase of nearly 10 percent. As of April 17, the records show that the facility is right on track for another 10 percent increase in 2006. Even if the Corps’ 1996 tonnage estimate were off by 3.5 million tons, the difference represents only one fully loaded 15-barge tow roughly every third day, totaling about 156. In 2005, the facility averaged 18.8 commercial tows daily. (Lockages normally take about 45 minutes to an hour.) The locks handled 6,507 commercial towboats, including 321 lightboat and 50 boats that could be categorized as government vessels. There were, additionally, about 415 lockages of recreational boats, including cruise boats such as the Delta Queen. We do not suggest a potential shutdown at Greenup but, interestingly, it has been calculated that if such a total closure were to occur it would increase truck traffic along the Ohio by 15,000 trucks a day.

One Corps spokesman said that the Ohio tonnage decline realized in recent years could be attributed to a decrease in the exports of metallurgical coal and decline in the production of high-sulfur coal, a condition resulting from changes in the Clean Air Act. After energy czar James R. Schlesinger decided in the 1970s that the U.S. would quit using so much oil and turn to natural gas, the movement of oil plummeted on the Mississippi. And wouldn’t you know it, the environmentalists used the decline to further delay construction of Mel Price Locks and Dam, the replacement for the old Locks and Dam 26 near Alton, Ill.

There are business ups and downs that change the fortunes of river transporters. It takes only an executive decision, a bill that impacts water transport negatively, just like the changes in the Clean Air Act that shut down coal mines in the heartland and, thus, reduced coal shipments for all modes of transport. Now demands for coal use have increased and statistics are on the move again. But drought or unseasonably high water can also impose diverse conditions that interrupt the smooth flow of river business. Eventually world population growth will force an increase in transportation demands.

The U.S. government says our transportation system moves 17 billions tons of freight annually. Projections are that domestic cargo is expected to increase by 70 percent by 2025, while international trade is expected to double. Is the government to be criticized at every turn for taking these projections into account as they work to make our waterway infrastructure more efficient? One cannot simply build a navigation facility by flipping a switch. It takes time and planning.

Corps regional economist Wes Walker says of the Ohio River locks, “They’re going to become less reliable, and we’re going to have to work on them more and more often.”

Failure to maintain our waterway infrastructure can do more than hurt colonies of mussels and fish along the Ohio, as conservationists charge. Not being able to meet the transportation demands of the nation can put a lot of financial hurt on Ohio River folks and regional businesses.

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