Weekly News Summary For August 25 - August 31, 2008:
Its unpredictable flows leave some communities gasping, while others desperately cope with floods.
It’s not Mississippi River water. It’s not even federal dollars, although their flows could also be compared to an unpredictable river.
It’s federal red tape.
That was the picture that emerged at an August 15 public hearing of the Mississippi River Commission. The federally chartered body, created in 1879, has been holding a regular series of public meetings along the river aboard its conference vessel, the mv. Mississippi. The August 15 meetings were held at the Mel Price Lock and Dam in Alton, Ill.
Most of those giving testimony before the commission were public officials from river towns or levee districts. They submitted their remarks in advance, and were asked to be brief.
The regulations that most concern river communities have to do with the ongoing development by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of maps of the Mississippi flood plains—including all the public and private levees along the Mississippi watershed. Technically, these maps are known as flood insurance rate maps, or FIRMs. FEMA is the federal agency responsible for administering the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)…
The “Northern Alliance” put on a display of strength and optimism for the Arkansas River Navigation Conference in Tulsa, Okla., last week.
The “alliance” consists of Cols. Donald E. Jackson and Anthony Funkhouser, the commanding officers, respectively, of the Little Rock and Tulsa Engineer Districts. Those districts have jurisdiction over the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS), and happen to be the northernmost districts in the Corps’ Southwestern Division.
“We’re known as the Northern Alliance because we gang up on everybody in the Southwestern Division,” Jackson said, noting that in the other two districts in the division—Fort Worth and Galveston—Corps officials are dealing with different kinds of issues.
Jackson and Funkhouser gave their presentation together, demonstrating the kind of teamwork that is required to jointly manage the two halves of a 445-mile waterway. And in their pitch, they made a plea for the same kind of teamwork from the stakeholders of their two districts as they take their budget battles to the division and, ultimately, to Washington.
At issue is the problem of prioritizing and funding the enormous backlog of maintenance on the system, which has locks averaging 43 years old. In “real” dollars, the Corps has basically had a “flat-line budget” for the last 10–20 years, Jackson noted. And with recent sharp increases in inflation, driven primarily by fuel costs, “with a flat-line budget, you’re getting less return on your investment,” he said….
With Congressionally mandated inspections of uninspected towing vessels (UTVs) looming in the future, the new commander of the Marine Safety Unit Baton Rouge said his office is offering courtesy examinations to towing companies.
Lt. Cmdr. Ray Lechner told The Waterways Journal that, unlike law enforcement boardings, there will be no civil penalties or fines assessed for deficiencies found during the courtesy dockside examinations.
A law enforcement boarding, known in the Coast Guard as a “4100 boarding,” is conducted by a law enforcement boarding team while a UTV is underway. It is generally a “condensed version of a dockside examination” and uses Coast Guard form 4100, hence the slang name, Lechner said.
Violations of regulations found during a 4100 boarding can subject the vessel owner to fines or civil penalties, and the Coast Guard can potentially order the company to tie up the towing vessel /tow if the deficiencies are discovered that affect navigational safety, Lechner explained.
“Thus, it is advantageous for industry to request a courtesy dockside examination from the Coast Guard,” he said. “MSU-BR can be contacted at 225, 298-5400 to make arrangements.”…
Navigation restrictions were lifted across the Upper Mississippi River on August 19, a week after a 15-barge tow grounded twice.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dustpan dredge, mv. Potter, completed emergency dredging operations at Mile 257 near Hamburg, about 15 miles above Winfield, Mo. It had begun dredging on August 16. The restrictions allowed traffic to continue to move, but it was slowed by the operations.
The Potter then headed south to Mile 223, north of the Mississippi river’s confluence with the Illinois River. The same 15-barge Marquette Transportation tow, pushed by the towing vessel Bruce L. Hahn, had also grounded there.
After the tow was removed, the Coast Guard determined that channel closure at the second site was not necessary. A safe channel was marked with buoys, and mariners were instructed to transit the area only during daylight hours, and to monitor Coast Guard broadcasts for updates. The Potter will widen and deepen the channel….
A historic type of World War II landing craft, the LST-325, will cruise the Upper Mississippi—the first time a craft of this type has been seen so far north, according to its captain.
The LST-325 is one of only two LST vessels preserved from that era. The letters stand for “landing ship, tank”—although during the war, soldiers nervously joked that they stood for “large, slow target.”
Built in 1942, the LST-325 was one of the first-built of a total of 1,051 LST crafts built, said its captain, Bob Jornlin. About 70 percent of LSTs were built along the Illinois and Ohio rivers during the war—a key part of what was then known as the “brown water Navy.”
The LST-325 is the only historic-status WWII ship that is still operational. Completely privately funded, it now serves as a floating museum and memorial to the era’s soldiers and sailors in Evansville, Ind., from where it makes trips on the rivers.
It is scheduled to visit Hannibal, Mo., August 21–25; Moline, Ill., August 28–September 2; Clinton, Iowa, September 4–8; and Fort Madison, Iowa, September 10–14. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for ages 5-18, with donations fervently welcomed….
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