Weekly News Summary for November 10-16, 2008:
On the eve of one of the most historic national elections in recent history, the Waterways Council Inc. (WCI) opened its fifth annual Waterways Symposium in St. Louis on October 30 with a strong call for changes in how the federal government manages and maintains the inland waterways.
Dan Mecklenborg, senior vice president and chief legal officer of Ingram Barge Company and chairman of WCI, began by recognizing outgoing president Barry Palmer’s 28 years of service to the Waterways Council and welcomed new president Cornel Martin, who was appointed July 14.
But the rest of the conference was all business, as inland waterway leaders laid out their agenda for a challenging time that some columnists are already calling a new age of scarcity, in which hundreds of billions of federal dollars will be tied up by the government’s emergency responses to the credit crisis.
Mecklenborg said the inland industry remains extremely skeptical about the spending plans and procedures of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Although the administration’s proposal for lock fees appeared “near death,” said Mecklenborg, the river industry is saying “not so fast” to any new taxes for the depleted Inland Waterways Trust Fund until it knows how the Corps plans to overhaul its spending procedures….
In what one speaker at the Waterways Symposium called “a strange-bedfellows letter,” industry and conservation groups got together to appeal to Congress for funding to make improvements to the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway.
Waterways Council Inc., the Nature Conservancy, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association and the National Audubon Society all signed an October 30 letter to leaders of the House and Senate and their appropriations committees, seeking swift action on an economic stimulus package for the nation’s infrastructure.
The goal of the letter is to ensure that the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP)—the package of lock replacements and environmental improvements on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007—moves forward with funding as soon as possible.
According to Col. Robert Sinkler, commander of the Rock Island Engineer District, the funding would amount to about $50 million the first year, $100 million the second year, and $200 million the third year, then leveling off at about $300 million a year thereafter.
Rich Innes, Upper Mississippi coordinator for The Nature Conservancy, told the Waterways Symposium that although conservation groups support the former Environmental Management Program in the region, they like NESP better, in part because it calls for a five-fold funding increase….
Gary Loew, chief of the programs division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Maj. Gen. Don T. Riley, Corps deputy commander, both knew why they had been invited to the annual convention of the Waterways Council Inc. They had both heard WCI vice president Dan Mecklenborg issue a ringing call to the river industry to refuse to consent to increased waterway fees, or any other fees, until the Corps’ way of funding and managing projects changes. Their job was to explain recent Corps reform efforts—and the constraints on them— to a polite, but extremely attentive, room.
Riley began by quoting Aristotle: “If you don’t get involved in government, you’re doomed to be governed by your inferiors.”
He noted that each of the 38 civil works districts used to be autonomous, controlling their own budgets. That wasteful practice, leading to unnecessary competition and duplication of effort, is no longer affordable, if it ever was, and the Corps now groups districts into regions and coordinates projects on a region-wide basis. Because of new technology, Riley said, several districts can now share one project.
Riley noted that the Corps’ workload has doubled in the past few years—without, needless to say, a doubling of dollars or manpower. He said the Corps is studying priorities and moving to a smaller overall number of projects. The Corps has been overhauling its procedures.
Riley also admitted that the Corps may be “overstretched” by some of its outside consulting projects, including ones with the Department of Energy and Microsoft…
American Commercial Lines Inc. last week reported that revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were $313.7 million, a 21.7 percent increase from the third quarter of 2007. Income from continuing operations for the quarter was $18.4 million or 36 cents per diluted share, compared to $15.9 million or 30 cents per diluted share for the same period a year ago.
"The third quarter presented us with both challenges and opportunities,” said Michael P. Ryan, president and chief executive officer. “We again had multiple significant weather events, including two hurricanes, which limited our operating capabilities throughout the quarter. Despite all the disruptions, we delivered a 20 percent improvement in earnings per share over third quarter 2007.
“We have stayed focused on our program to continue making operational improvements, building a more sustainable book of business, and controlling our costs to improve profitability. In Transportation, we have experienced steady demand and pricing strength across both liquid and dry businesses, realizing an 8 percent fuel-neutral rate increase this quarter. But we remain cautious about the near-term outlook given the current global economic uncertainties. Our fuel price adjustment clauses are catching up to the price we're paying, and during the third quarter we were able to more than recover fuel price inflation, though year-to-date fuel inflation remains unfavorable.”…
On October 7, Ingram Barge Company rechristened four large vessels at Paducah, renaming them all for Ingram family members.
Only one of the vessels, the John R. Ingram, was physically present for the ceremony. The others were hard at work.
The mv. John R. Ingram was originally named the Leslie Ann and was owned by Upper Mississippi Towing Corporation / Riverway Company. It was renamed the Steve T in 1974, and was sold to Ingram in April 2005. Measuring 198 by 50 feet, its GM 16-645E7B engines with Lufkin reduction gears at 4.34:1 produce 9,200 hp. Its captains are Marty Jamison and Earl Robbins.
The John R. Ingram has had new Rice kort nozzles installed, said Tom Bottoms, “but otherwise the engines are all original equipment.” Bottoms is vice president of MSI Midwest, which has the service contract on the boats….
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