Page 16: of Marine News Magazine (April 2012)

16MNApril 2012OP/EDThe Big River Coalition was created in fiscal year 2011 in reaction to the announcement by the Commander of the Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division con- firming the discontinuation of reprogramming funds to maintain the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) navigation channel. This position change immediately meant the Mississippi Rivers navigation channel would no longer receive preferential treatment. Shortly after the 1989 grounding of the M/V Marshal Konyev near Pilottown which, in essence, closed the River to all ship traffic, the Corps Headquarters announced in a position statement that it would maintain the nations most critical naviga- tion channel. The Big River Coalitions main focus has been to obtain additional funding to supplement theshortfall in the Corps annual budget, to strive to establish a legislative firewall around the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and to represent members of the Mississippi River navigation industry in matters related to coastal restora- tion.The Corps New Orleans District (NOD) calculates their average annual dredging budget at $110 million to maintain the LMR deep-draft navigation channel from Baton Rouge to the Gulf. The Presidents Budget for the NOD over the past 5 years has been approximately $60 million. An additional $50 million must be secured to maintain the channel or it becomes deficient. However, the above-mentioned amount of funding is under normal conditions and does not include impacts of tropical events, high-river or flood stages or the impacts of man- made disasters (such as a large oil spill). There are other projects or features that the NOD would also maintain if it had sufficient funding. The approximate annual amount to fund these additional features ? various jetties and dikes ? and also maintain the authorized channel dimensions is $200 million.When properly maintained and functioning, jetties, foreshore rock and lateral pile dikes reduce the amount and cost of dredging. Because South Pass and other Passes of the delta reach are not maintained, recreational and commercial fishing vessels and shallow-draft OSVs are forced to share the navigation channel with commercial deep-draft ship traffic. The proper maintenance of these Passes helps reduce dredging costs and greatly improves navigational safety in the main channel.Earlier this year, the Big River Coalition released a report it commissioned by Dr. Timothy Ryan containing infor- mation on the enormous financial impact that the failure to maintain authorized dimensions on the LMR could have to the nations economy. Dr. Ryan said, in part, If the channel is dredged to 45 feet, the $423.37 million in direct spending, $789.09 million in total spending, $118.15 million in earnings or income for American residents, and $13.55 million in federal taxes lost (See Table 20). For every foot below 45 feet, the losses get larger and larger. If the chan- nel is maintained to a depth of only 35 feet, the losses will be$14.02 billion in direct spending, $27.30 billion in total spending, $3.58 billion in earnings, and $424.32 million in federal taxes.? His full report can be accessed at: http://bigrivercoalition.org/news.html The Coalition has made significant progress in educat- ing Congress and navigation stakeholders of the impor- tance of maintaining fully authorized dimensions on the LMR deep-draft channel. The Louisiana Congressional Delegation was very active in helping to secure $90 mil- lion in supplemental funding this fiscal year. Notably, the Presidents Budget for FY 13 included an increase in the NODs budget of approximately $15 million over FY 12 levels ($68 million vs. $82 million in FY13), despite the 5.4 percent decrease in the Corps overall FY13 budget. The HMTF bill in the U.S. House of Representatives (Congressman Boustanys HR-104) has 185 co-sponsors, and Senator Levins Harbor Maintenance Act of 2011 (S A Dredging Update on the Lower Mississippi RiverBy Sean M. Duffy, Sr., Executive Vice President - Maritime Advocate with the Louisiana Maritime Association