Capsule News Summary For April 11-17, 2005:
Legislation to build new 1,200-foot locks and improve the environment for the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) was introduced April 6 as part of a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).
The bipartisan effort included leadership from Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent (R-Mo.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Mary Landrieu (D- La.), David Vitter (R-La.), John Warner (R-Va.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Pete Dominici (R-N.M.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.).
The introduction of the bill was applauded by the Midwest Area River Coalition (MARC 2000).
“MARC 2000 hails this as a major step, a regional consensus to support economic growth and environmental sustainability,” said Rick Tolman, chief executive officer of the National Corn Growers Association and chairman of MARC 2000. “Finally, after 13 years of study, we are moving forward to ensure economic growth and environmental sustainability in our region. We have always stated that both can be achieved.
“After decades of inaction, the Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway are finally a step closer to being more environmentally- and transportation-friendly.”…
The Little Rock Engineer District has scheduled three public hearings for early May in Oklahoma and Arkansas and is collecting comments through May 24 on the Draft Feasibility Report and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Arkansas River Navigation Study.
The hearings will be held on May 3 at Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, 200 E. Markham Ave., Little Rock, Ark.; May 4 at Latture Conference Center, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, Grand Avenue and 50th Street, Fort Smith, Ark.; and May 5 at Henry Zarrow Regional Library, 2224 W. 51st St., Tulsa, Okla. Registration will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Presentation and public comments will begin at 6:30 p.m.
The public hearings will describe the proposed action and alternatives, briefly describe the study and EIS, identify key issues of concern and receive public comments regarding the draft EIS and Feasibility Report.
The study has looked at ways to make the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System more reliable and improve navigation efficiency. The study explored ways to reduce the average number of days each year that flows are high enough to impede navigation. It also addressed potential deepening of the waterway so barges can be loaded more fully, and it examined widening the Verdigris River portion of the system in Oklahoma….
The Louisville Engineer District re-opened McAlpine Lock at 1:31 p.m. April 2 after closing the lock to river traffic March 30 for emergency repairs on a cell of the cofferdam around the adjacent new-lock construction.
The cell was split open when struck by an upbound tow, mv. Mary Harter, owned by B&H Towing Inc. of Paducah, Ky. The tow was upbound preparing to pass through the operational McAlpine lock when it struck the number 11 cell of the cofferdam at 8:45 p.m. March 30. As a safety precaution, the construction area was evacuated and work inside the cofferdam was temporarily halted.
Repairs to patch the approximately 10- by 15-foot hole consisted of welding steel bands across the gap, sliding in steel sheets behind the bands and filling the void with about 35 tons of concrete. Sheet metal will be welded to the bands, which will be used as a form. Concrete will then be poured into the void where fill was lost, to secure the original cell to the fabricated “patch.”…
Senior Coast Guard and industry officials laid the keel of the newest weapon in the war on terror, the first national security cutter (WMSL 750), during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman Ships Systems Ingalls shipyard March 29 in Pascagoula, Miss. The multimission cutter is being built by Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a joint venture between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin Corporation, as part of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System modernization and recapitalization program.
Honored guest speakers included Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and his wife, Meryl; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both R-Miss.; Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Thomas H. Collins; Rear Adm. Patrick M. Stillman, Integrated Deepwater System program executive officer; Philip Dur, president of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems; and Fred P. Moosally, president, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors.
“Today’s ceremony marks a significant milestone in the history of the Deepwater program and the transformation of the Coast Guard for its 21st-century missions,” said Collins as he addressed more than 300 invited guests and members of the media….
One barge was temporarily trapped at dam gate five at Smithland Locks and Dam at Ohio River Mile 918.5 and a second barge presumed submerged, blocking the full function of gate 2 temporarily, after the mv. Capt. Bill hit an approach wall and lost some of its barges early April 5 during its approach to the lock.
The towboat, owned by Western Rivers Boat Management Inc., Ash Flat, Ark., was towing 15 barges when it lost power in one engine as it approached the landside lock. The boat’s barges hit the approach wall and broke loose. Two of the barges were drawn downstream and others drifted into another motor vessel waiting to complete its upbound transit of the riverside lock chamber….
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