Weekly News Summary For December 21-27, 2009:
The Inland Waterways Users Board has endorsed a recommendation that the diesel fuel tax be increased by six to nine cents a gallon.
That recommendation was among others made in a preliminary report submitted by a working group at a board meeting December 15 in New Orleans. The working group, composed of representatives of the Users Board and staff members of the Army Corps of Engineers, plans to issue a final report soon after the first of the year.
Among waterway industry executives attending the meeting was Cornel Martin, president and chief executive officer of Waterways Council Inc. (WCI), who said that the proposed fuel tax increase would amount to an increase of from 30 to 45 percent. Martin, who made clear that the proposed fuel tax increase was “no small thing,” said that the group’s recommendations would be sent to WCI’s directors shortly after the first of the year to obtain their positions on the proposal.
Martin stressed that the fuel tax recommendation was “just one part” of the report. The working group also would hold the cost share of new construction in the Corps’ civil works program at 50 percent federal and 50 percent from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, Martin said. If major rehabilitation of locks costs more than $100 million, the cost share would stay at 50 percent federal and 50 percent Trust Fund. Major lock rehabilitation costing under $100 million would be 100 percent federal. The cost share for all dams, now 50 percent federal and 50 percent from the Trust Fund, would be changed to 100 percent federal….
The Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Baton Rouge will begin stepped-up voluntary safety examinations of uninspected towing vessels (UTVs) after the first of the year, said Lt. Cmdr. Raymond Lechner, the unit’s commanding officer.
This will be part of Phase 1 of the Coast Guard-wide initiative called the Towing Vessel Bridging Program (TVBP).The TVBP is a three-phase process that will eventually lead to towing vessels becoming inspected vessels under the yet-to-be-published Subchapter M regulations.
Speaking to a group of more than 125 industry and Coast Guard representatives at an outreach seminar on December 10, Lechner admitted that there is not yet much information being released from Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington as the new Subchapter M regulations are under review.
Congress mandated that the Coast Guard begin inspections of UTVs. The Coast Guard will be implementing the new regulations in three phases, with Phase 1 including voluntary safety exams already underway in many ports. Coast Guard examiners will give decals to vessels that pass.
Examinations will be scheduled at the convenience of towing companies. Decals will be good for three years….
Two of the inland waterways’ most prominent and popular executives were honored December 10 when the Seamen’s Church Institute presented its River Bell and River Legend awards at its annual Paducah, Ky., luncheon gala. Receiving the River Bell Award was C. Ronald James, president and chief executive officer of James Marine Inc., Paducah, Ky., with the River Legend Award going to retired Brent Towing Company president, Howard Brent of Greenville, Miss.
2009 marked the 10th annual gathering hosted by SCI to support its programs for inland and Gulf Coast mariners. This year’s River Bell Award luncheon will net more than $100,000 for the Seamen’s Church Institute, according to H. Merritt Lane III, president of Canal Barge Company, who served as chairman of the luncheon.
Lane, the 2004 River Bell award recipient, said he was “deeply honored” to serve as chairman. “This event has become one of the industry’s most anticipated gatherings,” he remarked. “Today, we celebrate our partnership with SCI and the careers and contributions of some of our most valuable leaders.”
The event also marked the 175th anniversary for the Seamen’s Church Institute, which emerged in New York in 1834 as a voluntary, ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church as an advocate for personal, professional and spiritual well-being of merchant mariners from around the world. In 1998, SCI developed Ministry on the River as an outreach program for inland mariners and their families to provide pastoral care, counseling and emergency response along 2,200 miles of inland waterways from Pittsburgh to New Orleans to Houston. SCI’s Centers for Maritime Education provides career development opportunities for mariners through cutting-edge training and license counseling with top-rated simulator facilities in Paducah and Houston, where SCI has trained more than 1,600 mariners….
The battle to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, now firmly in the national political arena, generated $13 million in emergency aid, as well as calls to permanently close off access between the Great Lakes and the inland waterways.
The $13 million in funding was announced by Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on December 14. Jackson is also chair of the Great Lakes Inter-Agency Task Force that has been coordinating remedies to the carp issue.
The money will be immediately available because it will come from a $475 million initiative that President Obama proposed in February and signed into law in October called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Most of the money will be used to “close conduits” and “shore up low-lying lands between the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal,” where a fish-killing operation took place in recent weeks, “and adjacent waterways.”
One of the waterways of concern is the Des Plaines River, whose waters mingled with those of the Ship Canal during flooding in 2007. Levees will be built between the two waterways….
In October, McGinnis Inc. opened a new sandblasting and paint facility at Mile 320.3 of the Ohio River. The state-of-the-art facility boasts an enclosed area large enough to accommodate oversized tank barges and is the “first of its kind in the world,” according to its president, Rick Griffith.
The enclosure is a total of 44,996 square feet. This includes 37,293 square feet of space to “run a barge through, much like you would with a car wash,” said Griffith. The remainder of the building will be used as a blast support room, electrical room, compressor room and a paint tech room.
McGinnis says that the paint shop is both efficient—with the ability to complete a hopper barge within 24–36 hours—and environmentally friendly. The latter claim has garnered some recent support when WorkBoat Magazine gave McGinnis third place in their second annual Environmental Initiative Award.
Roy Potter has been named the manager of the new paint shop….
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