Editorial: WRDA A Challenge Right Up To The End

A hundred years ago, a newspaper employee might have heard the clarion call “Stop the presses!” It meant that at least one page of the upcoming edition was to be made over to accommodate a late-breaking story.

Today a VIP can make a pronouncement, and before a reporter can call his office, it’s on an Internet blog. Does anyone stop the press these days?

One wouldn’t think that the WJ would run into maddening deadlines, but we do. All broadcasters and print-news people have a point of no return, where they must run the press or speak into the microphone.

We broach this subject because we have one of those agonizing deadline situations. The WJ has supported water resources development legislation for decades. Since 2000, the challenge has been particularly difficult because Congress has opted not to pass a bill. Normally, to be most effective for maintaining and modernizing waterways, new legislation should be passed at least every two years.

The U.S. House and Senate have passed the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 by veto-proof votes. Still, the Bush administration says the president will veto it. Now we’ve reached the point where our editorial must be written. Our pressmen are chomping at the bit, so to speak.

How we got to this point is interesting. We’ve reported for years about why our river system needs proper maintenance and modernizing. What we’ve probably not done enough of is tell readers about other writers who understand the value of water resource development. We are not alone in this fight.

Mike Danahey, a Chicago writer, is just such a person. On September 27, he explained to his readers about the barge’s role in local commerce. Danahey took his readers right to where the rubber meets the road. He explained to them how the salt used to melt snow off local roads, antifreeze to protect their cars from imminent cold weather, and cement used to build roadway extensions most likely reached Chicago by barge.

“A good many people don’t realize how important the river system is to hauling freight in this country,” Bill Arnold, a business development manager for Memco Barge Company, told Danahey. Then Todd Hudson, commercial director for American River Transportation Company, explained, “Using waterways takes pressure off the already congested roads system and saves some energy, as well.”

Danahey did what some writers who are called upon to write about rivers fail to do. He talked with river-industry people. We’ve reported the same statistics for decades, so we won’t repeat them. But we know that Danahey talked to enough people to get a clear picture.

What readers also should know is that many bulk products that move by barge cannot be moved into the heartland by truck or rail because of the increased cost. Fertilizer and salt from the Gulf are among them. Then there are the shipments too large and too heavy to be moved other than by barge. Let’s not forget the red-flag cargoes (toxic or volatile) that people don’t want moved over highways and through cities.

Another writer, Paul Davidson of USA Today, reported on sharpshooting by railroads. This means that where they have no competition, railroads stick it to their customers. In the 1800s, Davidson explains, they called them robber barons. “Now,” he writes, “businesses contend the nation’s major railroads are trying to resurrect that Gilded Age.” Customers say freight railroads are socking them with unreasonable rate increases and providing poor services in areas where they face no rail competitor. The newspaper ran a chart, showing clearly that rates charged to captive customers are roughly double those charged to customers who have other options. (During the building of Mel Price Locks and Dam, the railroads boasted that they could charge an extra $750 million a year for the duration of the delay, which was about 10 years.) Is it any wonder Congress is probing the matter?

It has been a long, uphill battle, and we hope WRDA makes it through just fine, even if it does take an override vote.

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.)