Weekly News Summary For May 5-11, 2008:
Washington, D.C.—The House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, getting ready to shepherd a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) through the legislative mill, heard more opposition to the proposed lockage fee April 30 at a hearing held by Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas).
While opposing the proposed lockage fee (see Washington Waves, April 28), Stephen D. Little, president and chief executive officer of Crounse Corporation, Paducah, Ky., and general counsel of Waterways Council Inc., offered another way to finance the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF).
“Instead of requiring that one-half of the costs to construct an inland waterway modernization project come from the diesel fuel taxes that the barge industry currently pays into the Trust Fund, WCI recommends that one-fourth of the needed modernization funds be drawn each year from current diesel fuel tax receipts for that year and the remainder be drawn from general revenues,” Little suggested.
“At the current $90–$95 million rate that the barge industry is presently paying into the Trust Fund each year, such a revised cost-sharing regimen would support an IWTF-financed annual program in the range of $360–$380 million, approximately the level that the Trust Fund-financed program has reached in recent years.”…
Following are excerpts from the April 30 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Transportation by Stephen D. Little, president and chief executive officer of Crounse Corporation and general counsel for Waterways Council Inc.
“Doubling the amount of revenues extracted from the inland waterway industry, as the administration proposes, will drive commerce off the waterways and onto congested and capacity constrained highways and railroads, exactly the opposite of what enlightened national transportation policy should seek to accomplish….”
“The administration’s barge lockage fee proposal will adversely impact economic interests throughout the country in an uneven and, in some regions, a punitive manner. States like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota will be particularly hard hit.
“Some barge companies and the shippers whose commercial products are transported by barge will see the amount of taxes they pay into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund skyrocket. For example, if the administration’s proposed new tax were to be fully implemented, one company whose barges presently transport coal in tows from Cumberland Mine on the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania to a power plant at East Bend, Ky., near Cincinnati would see the amount of IWTF-bound taxes they pay for that one-way trip increase more than seven-fold. For another company, a typical movement of corn from St. Paul, Minn., to New Orleans, La., would experience almost a 595 percent increase in taxes paid to the Trust Fund. And, where chemicals are being moved from Carville, La., to Neville Island, Pa., the round-trip tax would almost double….”
The heavy rains that have swollen the Ohio River this spring have kept the Army Corps of Engineers from working on the skidway of the Olmsted Lock and Dam project for the past six weeks.
“We haven’t been working in the river at this time,” said project manager Rick Schipp.
But this is not expected to delay the overall project completion target. That’s because the skidway construction is a “float” activity, meaning it can be done during a number of different time windows.
“We continue to work on the foundation piles of the skidway and to receive delivery of mission-critical materials,” said Schipp. A key piece of equipment arrived in February -- an excavation barge supplied by Todd Shipyards of Seattle….
Companies that make a new generation of fuel accountability systems are hoping that (to quote Bob Barker) the price may be right for barge and towing operators to take a closer look at them.
With diesel pushing $4.00 a gallon in some markets at this writing, “Now is the time to look at these systems,” said Keith Darling, senior vice president of boat operations at Memco Barge Line of Chesterfield, Mo. Memco’s 56-boat fleet has not yet adopted a fuel accountability system, but Darling said one of their boats recently began trying one out.
Measuring fuel consumption is not new. Since the early 1980s, various systems have tried different technologies to meter fuel usage. But the suite of technologies we have today had not yet matured.
Charlie Lewis, director of vessel project management at American Commercial Lines LLC, says boats in one of their divisions have used an older fuel measurement system for 10 years. But this system has produced only “mixed results.” It saves fuel by adjusting engine speed to reduce drag in the propeller wash, maximizing thrust by giving the propeller the best bite. Lewis estimates fuel savings at only 3 percent. ACL is examining newer systems to increase fuel savings….
Should the Coast Guard issue a Certificate of Inspection (COI) to a vessel it has never boarded?
That was one of the issues posed at the 46th Annual National Marine Conference East of the National Association of Marine Surveyors (NAMS) held April 13–15 at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans.
In a 2004 appropriations bill, Congress mandated that uninspected towing vessels (UTVs) be inspected by the Coast Guard.
What is developing is a program where marine towing companies may be required to implement a safety management system that is subject to an audit by a Coast Guard-approved third party.
The Coast Guard could issue a Certificate of Inspection based on the results of the audits and other objective evidence. The Coast Guard is planning to conduct oversight visits to every inspected towing vessel at least once during its five–year period of certification.
Dave Dolloff, a retired “hawse pipe” Coast Guard officer with an extensive marine safety background, is the project manager for the development of the regulations to inspect UTV’s as a civilian at Coast Guard Headquarters.
Dolloff was the keynote speaker at the NAMS luncheon on April 14. Congress mandated the inspections of towing vessels, but offered no direction as to implementation. As the regulations are being developed, the Coast Guard is “moving from direct inspections to oversight of third parties and towing vessels,” he said….
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.)
