Weekly News Summary For April 30 - May 6, 2007:
The fate of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA 2007), which the House passed April 19 by a vote of 394 to 25, now rests with the Senate and a House-Senate conference committee. As of April 23, there was no clear indication if and when the Senate would take up the measure, but the word from staff members is that the Senate version of WRDA is expected to be taken up during the week of May 7.
Meanwhile, R. Barry Palmer, president of Waterways Council Inc., commended the House for approving the legislation (H.R. 1495), which Palmer said authorizes “critically important projects on the inland waterways.” The projects include the modernization of seven locks along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and work on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Bayou Sorrel and the re-routing of Matagorda Bay.
Similar legislation passed the house in the last Congress but stalled in House-Senate conference negotiations. No water resources authorization legislation has been enacted since 2000.
“Last year, we came very close to resolving our differences with the other body in conference negotiations, but we ultimately ran out of time,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), chairwoman of the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee. “However, I hope H.R. 1495 can take us to that point and further, releasing this backlog of authorizations to fix our existing infrastructure and to authorize new flood-control, navigation and environmental-restoration projects.”
Because many of the authorizations in H.R. 1495 have received no action for six years, Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Johnson intend to pass two WRDA bills in the current Congress….
Following a rash of personal injury lawsuits against dredgers in Texas, State Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale (R-Houston) proposed legislation to close the loophole in Texas law that aided the explosion of tort claims.
The website Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) said almost 60 percent of all personal injury lawsuits against dredgers are filed in just four South Texas counties—Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Zapata.
Liability costs have risen by as much as 300 percent for some Texas dredging companies, pushing up the price of dredging projects dramatically, it said. Costs above Corps of Engineers estimates have led to some dredging projects being cancelled in Port Mansfield and at the Port of Brownsville.
“Texas’ maritime industry is being deluged by one of the most egregious examples of lawsuit abuse we have seen,” said TLR chairman and chief executive officer Dick Weekly. “The state cannot afford to have our ports and waterways, which contribute $178 billion to our economy and $5 billion in state and local taxes every year, crippled by those who are exploiting a loophole in our state venue law.”
Van Arsdale’s HB 1602 was endorsed by TLR, Maritime Jobs for Texas and the Texas Ports Association, which includes the ports of Houston, Brownsville, Mansfield, Port Isabel, Victoria, Harlingen, Palacios, Orange, Port Allen and West Calhoun. In addition, it was endorsed by the Texas Waterways Operators Association, Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association and the Dredging Contractors of America….
Coast Guard officials were hoping to lift a one-way deep-draft traffic restriction on the Mississippi River near the Philadelphia Crossing at Mile Marker 183 after raising a sunken hopper barge over the weekend.
Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau at Sector New Orleans said the restriction limits deep-draft vessels to one-way traffic during daylight only. She said a derrick barge was due on the scene April 26.
The Stolt Creativity and the Norb Whitlock collided about 1 p.m. on April 23 at the Philadelphia Crossing near Geismer. One initial report said both units were northbound and the ship was approaching its dock when it veered. The accident is under investigation by the Coast Guard.
The collision resulted in one of the Norb Whitlock’s 16 barges, which was loaded with salt, sinking approximately 800 feet from the right descending bank.
After the collision, the Coast Guard closed the river between Miles 182 and 184 while the location of the sinking salt barge was determined. The barge apparently sank in about 60 feet of water on the edge of the channel….
Ingram Barge Company honored one of its longtime employees April 3 when it christened the harbor boat Ot Adkins. The ceremony took place near the Nashville-based company’s Huntington (W.Va.) Terminal on the Ohio River.
Otis (Ot) Adkins, the terminal manager, is in his 35th year in the river business. He started in 1972 as an hourly employee with the Ohio River Company, a subsidiary of Midland Enterprises that Ingram acquired in 2002.
Six years after he began, he was promoted to foreman at both the Kenova and Huntington terminals. In 1981, he transferred to Hartley Marine, an ORC affiliate, but returned to Huntington a short time later as harbor coordinator. In 1989, he was promoted to assistant manager of the two terminals, and in 1991, he became manager of Huntington.
The Huntington Terminal is a rail-to-barge coal transloading facility at Mile 307 that holds 700 railcars and has the capacity to handle between 12 million and 14 million tons of coal a year. It has 30 employees.
Formerly the Red Bird—which has also worked most, if not all, of its lengthy career at the terminals—the mv. Ot Adkins spends its time shuttling empty barges into the terminal and moving loads to various fleets. It is a 74-foot harbor boat that was built in 1967 by Maxon Construction Company….
Excell Marine Corporation has expanded its Paducah, Ky., office operations by leasing an office building, machine shop and warehousing center, and has appointed a new vessel operations manager. The newly acquired facility is located at 501 Virginia St., Paducah, Ky. 42003. The telephone number is 270, 443-5377.
Joining the Cincinnati-based carrier as vessel operations manager for the parent company, McNational Inc., is Capt. Charlie Ritchie, a veteran towboat and excursion boat captain who has also served as marine operations manager for Vulcan Materials and Reed Crushed Stone (RECO). Prior to his previous management responsibilities, Capt. Ritchie was a captain for Ingram Barge Company and the former G.W. Gladders Towing Company for many years. He also spent four years as captain of the Mississippi Queen.
A fifth-generation riverman, Capt. Ritchie has a master’s license for unlimited tonnage, covering more than 4,900 miles of inland waterways. He earned his first class pilot’s license, also with unlimited tonnage, in 1973 and was granted his first master’s license in 1977. Ritchie believes that in 1972, at the age of 21, he was the first student to enroll at the River School in Memphis, operated at the time by Capt. Nelson Rowell. He was captain of Memco’s mv. Mary Sheel for the past 19 months prior to joining Excell Marine.
Excell, headquartered in Cincinnati, is a subsidiary of McNational Inc. and McGinnis Inc., a multi-faceted marine service provider on the Ohio River that has been in operation since 1913. The various firms operate 15 towboats, more than 30 harbor boats and five shipyard and repair facilities. In addition, they offer main-engine overhauls, drydocking, fuel and supply services and an environmental response team.
Certified marine surveyors may play a large role in the future inspection of uninspected towing vessels (UTV’s) that Congress has mandated, Edward L. Shearer told The Waterways Journal at the 45th Annual NAMS Conference East held in Galveston on April 2 and 3.
NAMS is the National Association of Marine Surveyors Inc.
Shearer, president and owner of Shearer & Associates, a firm of naval architects, marine engineers and marine surveyors in Houston, New Orleans and Nashville, was later scheduled to make the presentation to the entire conference, which attracted more than 100 marine surveyors, insurance executives, attorneys, and other professionals to the historic Tremont Hotel.
While implementation of the inspection program may be as much as two years away, the first draft of the new regulations was released the previous week at a meeting of the Coast Guard Transportation Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) Working Group on Towing Vessel Inspection.
There are still major portions of the inspection process that have not been written. Two of the sections in the draft proposal that Shearer specifically noted were left blank included a section on crew endurance and a section on the oversight role of the Coast Guard….
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