Weekly News Summary For November 30 - December 6, 2009:
On October 14, Cincinnati’s city council proposed a settlement with soybean farmer and terminal developer David Martin and his company, Queensgate Terminals LLC. The proposal, which still needs final approval by the council, would settle a pending lawsuit against the city over property Martin said the city prevented him from using to establish a barge terminal. The deal would involve a swap of the original property, where Martin’s efforts were strongly opposed by neighborhood leaders, for another location further upriver by a few hundred feet.
Martin was optimistic at the time, telling the Cincinnati Inquirer, “I’m pretty confident that even though we’ve had to change the site, it’s doable.”
Now another Cincinnati terminal operator near the new site is crying foul, and claims the settlement would be at its expense.
Cincinnati Bulk Terminals (CBT) operates in the area that the settlement proposes to give to Martin. The settlement would require the city to terminate Cincinnati Bulk’s lease.
James Hatfield III, vice president of River Trading Company, which owns a majority stake in CBT, said he objects to Martin’s facility being given public taxpayer dollars to compete with a privately-funded terminal—especially one that can already handle all of the business projected by Martin….
A federal district judge ruled that mismanagement of maintenance by the Corps of Engineers of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) was directly responsible for the flood damage to homes in St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A 1928 law gives the Corps immunity from lawsuits for flood protection projects that fail. Federal District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled last year that even though Corps’ failed flood control may have been the cause of much of the flooding in New Orleans, the Corps was immune from prosecution.
But in the landmark decision issued November 18, Duval ruled the MR-GO was a navigation project, not a flood control project, and the Corps could not claim immunity under the 1928 law.
“The failure of the Corps to recognize the destruction that the MR-GO had caused and the potential hazard that it created is clearly negligent on the part of the Corps,” Duval ruled in a 156-page decision that could result in the federal government paying $700,000 in damages to three individuals and a business. Appeals are expected….
Asian carp appear to have breached two electric barriers designed to stop their spread into Lake Michigan, according to tests of carp DNA in the Calumet-Sag Channel, which branches off from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal above where the barriers are located.
Major-General John Peabody of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Engineer Division told the Associated Press that biologists had collected 32 samples that indicated the presence of Asian carp between the barriers and Lake Michigan. The samples were taken September 23 and October 1, but results only became available to the Corps on November 17.
No actual carp have been spotted, however. If the invasive fish are present, the only remaining barrier between them and Lake Michigan is the O’Brien Lock at the end of the channel. Environmental groups have been calling for a permanent shut-down of the lock. It is feared the fast-growing, invasive fish, which can consume 40 percent of their body weight in algae per day, could displace lake fish and threaten the $7 billion Great Lakes sport fishing industry….
When it came to naming its newest towboat, Magnolia Marine Transport Company officials decided it would be good to honor a man who played an integral part in its construction and keeps it humming day in and day out. Who better than the company’s port electrician, Jody McMinn.
Built by Nichols Boat Company in Greenville, Miss., the mv. Jody McMinn is the sixth and last of a series of 3,000 hp. towboats constructed by Nichols for Magnolia Marine Transport. The vessel was dedicated earlier this year at the company’s marine operations base in Vicksburg.
Unique to the boat, and to all of Magnolia Marine’s vessels for that matter, is a fuel transfer system that McMinn custom designed and built.
McMinn’s first job was as a marine electrician at Mainstream Shipyards in Greenville, right out of high school. Two years later, he joined Magnolia Marine working for the late Dennis Ross, whose son, Dino, Magnolia’s vice president of engineering, is his boss today. When the company moved to Vicksburg, he moved as well, and today, is in his 36th year with the company.
“I was always interested in electrical work,” McMinn said. “I guess I just had a knack for it.”…
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told local flood control authorities on November 19 in Alton, Ill., East Alton, and Wood River, Ill., that under-seepage of a 60-year-old levee could threaten serious flooding in case of high water, and requires an immediate federal fix, according to local news sources.
Chris Wilson of the Corps briefed members of the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council, a group of local officials that will supervise levee systems in Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties. Wilson will manage that effort.
The Corps built the levee 60 years ago and turned it over to the Wood River Drainage and Levee District. The Corps is taking responsibility for the immediate fix, although Wilson said some local money may be needed for a long-term solution.
In the past few weeks, sand boils, first noticed in July, have gotten noticeably worse. A sand boil occurs when water and sand seep under a levee and “boil up” on the other side.
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