Weekly News Summary For November 19-25, 2007:
Mobile, Ala.—Some things don’t change on the waterways. Even though participants in the 2007 annual meeting of the National Waterways Conference November 8 and 9 were able to celebrate a new Water Resources Development Act, old themes—mainly the ongoing funding battles with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)—continued to surface.
“OMB is so anti-water-projects that it’s going to be very difficult for us to make significant improvements in our infrastructure like we should,” said Sonny Callahan the opening speaker at the meeting. Callahan knows a thing or two about OMB; he’s a former U.S. Congressman from Alabama, and, as chairman of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, he was responsible for moving the Corps of Engineers appropriations bills each year.
“They (OMB) would send us a bill that would be half of what we needed, and in addition to that, half of what they asked for would be funded by user fees,” Callahan said of the administration budget managers. “They knew full well that we weren’t going to pass new user fees—not through my committee anyway—and secondly, they knew full well we were going to boost up what they presented. So for years, they have sent up bills requesting far less than what we really needed to have our water systems improved and maintained as they should be.
“I don’t think that’s going to change unless we get a president in there who would get rid of OMB and we could revise that system, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Callahan offered one suggestion for Alabama waterways users: considering the longstanding battles to try to get improved channel maintenance by the Corps in the Southeast, eventually stakeholders may have to raise their own money to pay for a dredge to maintain the state’s ports and waterways….
The U.S. Coast Guard has released a report following a two-year investigation of the January 2005 sinking of the mv. Elizabeth M, which killed four crewmen and injured three.
The report listed 39 conclusions for the incident. However, the Coast Guard said the causes of the casualty could not be absolutely determined, because four of the seven crewmembers perished.
“No one factor is greater than any other. It was a sequence of events that led to the casualty,” said Cmdr. Steve Wischmann of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit, Pittsburgh.
The northbound Elizabeth M lost six loads of coal January 9 on the Ohio River when it exited Montgomery Locks at Mile 31.7. The towboat drifted back into the dam and went over the dam, sinking just below the dam.
George Zappone, the master of the Elizabeth M, was issued an 18-month suspension and an 18-month probationary period immediately following the incident.
“There were a number of factors found in decision making and performance that night that led to that. There was a criminal case considered, but there wasn’t enough factual evidence to carry that forward,” Wischmann said….
Lock failure on either the Mississippi or Illinois rivers carries with it the potential economic damage that could exceed more than half a billion dollars for corn and soybean producers, according to a University of Missouri study.
The study, funded by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, assesses the impact of the failure of either of two locks: Lock 25 on the Mississippi River or LaGrange Lock on the Illinois River.
More than 60 million tons of goods valued at more than $29 billion crossed these locks in 2005, said Seth Meyer, agricultural economist at the MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.
Barges provide a lower cost mode of transportation for a wide range of commodities. Shipping the same 2005 commodity volumes to the same destinations would cost an additional $580 million by rail and $1.6 billion by truck, according to figures in the study.
A 90-day lock failure from October through December of 2005 on either river would have a $219 million to $585 million impact on corn and soybean producers alone, depending on rail rate behavior, the study indicates. These figures are based on no rail rate increase at the low end of losses to a 25 percent increase in rail rates at the high end….
The Mobile Engineer District christened a new towboat October 22 at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Designed to push a crane barge, the vessel will assist with maintenance dredging primarily along the Black Warrior Tombigbee river system from Tuscaloosa to Mobile, and elsewhere in the district as needed.
Named posthumously mv. Lawson after a Corps of Engineers employee, George Lawson, who spent 37 years in the Mobile District, the vessel measures 96 by 40 feet with a draft of 5 feet 7 inches. It was built by Quality Shipyards LLC, Houma, La.
The 2,010 hp. boat has three Caterpillar C18 diesel engines, each rated 670 hp. at 2,100 rpm. Three engines were needed for additional horsepower and to facilitate navigation in shallow water. The engines turn 52-inch Rice propellers in kort nozzles. Twin Disc MG5170 gears provide reduction at a ratio of 5.03:1….
Mitsubishi Engine North America has appointed Laborde Products Inc., Covington, La., to be its distributor to the Upper Mississippi River inland waterways market. Laborde has sold Mitsubishi engines to the Gulf Coast market for more than five years.
Laborde sold the first Mitsubishi heavy duty marine propulsion engine to the inland waterways industry in March 2002. The first pair of engines were sold to Kirby Inland Marine for the mv. Nickie B. Originally powered by 12V-71, 365 hp. engines, the Nickie B received Mitsubishi model S6A3-MPTA engines rated at 483 hp. at 1,840 rpm.; they provided Kirby with 32 percent more power and improved fuel economy. Kirby now is operating more than 32 Mitsubishi-manufactured engines within its fleet and has additional Mitsubishi repowers scheduled for 2008.
“The best sales tool we have is the fact that companies like Kirby, Martin Marine, Echo Towing, Tech Towing and others are repeat customers,” said Doug Oehrlein, chief operating officer of Laborde Products. “In fact, more than 60 percent of our customer base is made up of multi-Mitsubishi-powered vessel owners. The fact that these companies are coming back to Mitsubishi and Laborde confirm that we not only have the right engine for the inland river application, we also have the right parts and service support to keep those engines operating.”
Now, with Mitsubishi’s blessing, Laborde will expand its distribution and service of the engines to the Upper Miss and Ohio River markets.
“We are going to go about developing the Upper River Mitsubishi program, just as we have done along the Gulf Coast, one step at a time,” Oehrlein said….
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