Weekly News Summary For July 24-30, 2006:
Senate Approves Water Resources Development Act
A bill that would authorize about $11 billion worth of navigation, flood control, environmental and other civil works projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was approved July 19 by voice vote after 13 hours of debate in the Senate.
One Corps reform amendment and another to retain the services of the hopper dredge McFarland were approved but two others that would have set up systems of priorities for water projects were rejected. The reform amendment offered by Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) calls for independent peer reviews of Corps projects estimated to cost more than $40 million. The review would determine the project efficacy, based on size, nature and effects.
The Midwest Area River Coalition (MARC 2000) said that final passage of the Water Resources Development Act or WRDA (S. 728) will end 13 years of waiting for infrastructure improvements and ecosystem restoration for the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway systems. The authorizing legislation includes $1.8 billion for seven new 1,200-foot locks and $1.65 billion for ecosystem restoration. Half that sum would be funded through the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.
The measure also would withdraw the authority of the Corps to build 58 projects authorized by previous legislation.
“We applaud the Senate for having the vision to address long-overdue measures to modernize our river infrastructure,” said Rick Tolman, chairman of MARC 2000 and chief executive officer of the National Corn Growers Association, after the bill was passed. “For agriculture, manufacturers and the consuming public, an efficient river system—our ‘Third Coast’—is necessary for America’s 21st century transportation needs. WRDA takes the first step in ensuring that.”
R. Barry Palmer, president of Waterways Council Inc., said the strong vote in favor of WRDA “underscores a growing understanding of the importance of the Corps of Engineers civil works program and the many benefits of the inland waterways system and its role in keeping the nation economically strong and competitive. The bill will help to improve our waterways, ports, flood and hurricane protection systems, and also restore important environmental ecosystems.”…
Paducah, Ky.—Although no recommendations for waterways project funding came from the July 13 meeting of the Inland Waterway Users board meeting, its members were given an opportunity to “get a feel” for the progress of—or the need for—several current projects.
Mark R. Pointon, the board’s executive secretary, said the Paducah meeting was the second of three meetings conducted throughout the year in various regions of the country to allow area project managers and proponents an opportunity to showcase their undertakings and plead their cases for funding.
Results and findings from the Paducah session and those from the next meeting at an as-yet-undetermined location will be digested to formulate a funding recommendation in its annual report to the secretary of the Army and to Congress with a list of priorities and suggested funding levels.
Reserves in the Inland Waterways Trust Fund account, as of May were $283.3 million, Pointon told The Waterways Journal. He said the account is funded through a 20-cents-per-gallon tax levied on all diesel fuel consumed by inland waterway transportation firms to match federal expenditures for capital construction and major rehabilitation projects along the Inland waterways.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting a public meeting on July 25 to discuss the status of the potential plans for the design and construction of a fish passage structure at Melvin Price Locks and Dam. A fish passage structure would improve upriver passage of native fish and would use nature-like bypass channels to allow fish unimpeded access to more than 243 miles of river and tributary streams.
Based on the recommendations of the recently completed Upper Mississippi River/Illinois Waterway (UMR-IWW) System Navigation Feasibility Study that examined system needs over the next 50 years, the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) was implemented to achieve the dual purposes of UMR-IWW ecosystem restoration and navigation improvements.
This project is part of the pre-construction, engineering and design phase associated with the NESP and is performed under authority provided by Section 216 of the Flood Control Act of 1970. Pre-construction, engineering and design is an interim phase between completing a feasibility study and Congressional authorization for construction. Congressional authorization is required before construction can begin and has not been received to date….
Eymard Bros. Towing Company of Harvey, La., took delivery of its new 1,725 hp. mv. Caleb J. Eymard recently.
The 60- by 28- by 9.5-foot pushboat was purposely built with a short hull because it is slated to do fleeting work in the Mississippi River, where the company has a contract to supply three tugs for ADM, said company president Gary Eymard Sr.
Eymard and his son Gary Jr. did much of the work on their three-deck boat at L&L Marine’s yard. The boat has triple Guascor 180 engines that develop 575 hp. each, mated to 6:1 Twin Disc 5222 reduction gears, supplied by Stewart Supply.
Eymard said he installed Yanmar 40 kw. gensets from Laborde Products in Covington, La., for electrical power. He said he is also using Laborde Products to supply a new Mitsubishi engine to replace a blown 16v92 engine in one of his other tugs, the mv. Jana Marie.
Although the mv. Caleb J. Eymard (named for his grandson) was designed with six berths, the boat is a “dinner-bucket” boat because the crews normally go home at night….
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa set a record for the month of June, with inbound steel, pipe and dry fertilizer up while outbound soybeans and miscellaneous grain products were down, said Steve Kissee, chairman of the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority.
“The warm, dry spring weather produced a smaller wheat crop than expected, but more arrived at the port than we anticipated, helping push our overall tonnage numbers upward.”
“Wheat is normally harvested during the second week in June. Wheat production is such an important agribusiness today; it is hard to believe that wheat is not native to this country. The first wheat planting was done in 1777, as a hobby crop. Today, wheat is grown in 42 states in the U.S.,” said Kissee.
A total of 224,000 tons of cargo in 130 barges were shipped to or from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in June, compared to 187,000 tons in 113 barges in May and 148,000 tons in 89 barges last year….
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