Page 74: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2012)

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WCI Meetings in Washington high- light shortfalls in waterways infrastruc- ture funding while red tape prevents critical industry input through InlandWaterways User Board. Washington, DC: Yesterday?s Water- ways Council (WCI) 2012 Washington Seminar shed new light on the chal- lenges faced by inland waterways users and their customers, especially as new transportation funding legislation inches forward on Capitol Hill. Attendee frus- tration was evident on many issues but the proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engi- neer?s budget and roadblocks that pre- vent the Inland Waterways User Board ? the federal advisory committee estab-lished back in 1986 ? from operating asusual, were among the key issues dis- cussed at length on Tuesday. SITREP: USACE Maj. General Michael Walsh, Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) first ad- dressed the gathered members by giving a short overview of USACE efforts, funding and plans for the future. The good news included the completion of USACE efforts in New Orleans to pro- tect the city against what he character- ized as ?the 100 year flood.? This and other successes were tempered against the news that the Corps continues to op- erate on a continuing resolution, withfunding at just 9 percent of 2010 levels. Beyond this, the proposed $4.7 billion federal budget specifies a 5 percent re- duction in the USACE budget from the previous fiscal year. Walsh also touched upon the contro- versial $800 million cost over-run on the Olmsted Lock and Dam project. Origi-nally authorized under the Water Re- sources Development Act (WRDA) in 1988 at a cost of $775 million, with a 7-year construction period, the project hasseen multiple, significant cost over-runs. This week, when it was clear that Olm- sted?s price tag had ballooned to a whopping $2.9 billion, WCI officials said in reaction, ?Today?s re-statement may be low; it apparently does not con- tain an escalator for inflation, which allother Corps' project estimates do con-tain.? For his part, Walsh promised the gather WCI board members that the Corps would (a.) improve management oversight on this and other projects, (b.) perform additional cost reviews and (c.) change construction methods as neces-sary in order to achieve better efficien- cies. Unspoken was the fact that the newest price tag increase represents $800 million that cannot be spent else-where on critical locks and dam re-newals. With regard to the current budget proposal on the table in Wash- ington, Walsh said, ?We operate in a time of constrained resources in chal-lenging times.? Walsh outlined a USACE plan to ex- pedite feasibility studies for prospective infrastructure projects and to discon-tinue the practice of ?trying to fund toomany individual projects,? while identi- fying locations where commercial traffic did not warrant continuous 24/7 service, something he said would save money that could be better spent elsewhere. At the working luncheon that followed, Rep. Bob Gibbs (OH) instead focusedon the unresolved ballast water technol- ogy mess that threatens commerce in hisstate and many others. Perhaps under- scoring the abject neglect of the U.S. waterfront within recent ARRA distri- butions, he also called for the movement of infrastructure funds to waterways from other modes. And, he bemoaned transportation legislation that was top heavy on environmental spending but not so much on infrastructure.Obama Administration: 2 + 2 = 5? Following Gibbs was Seth Harris, Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Depart-ment of Labor, who gave a largely polit- ical speech outlining how the President had increased funding for waterways in- frastructure projects. Painting a rosier view of the picture and administration policy, he portrayed a 2 percent increase in proposed transportation expenditures. But the numbers didn?t add up, espe- cially based upon the looming 5 percentcut that the USACE is facing amidst a growing list of critical replacement proj- ects of locks and dams that are rapidlyapproaching or have surpassed their in- tended 50-year working life. During the break, at least two seminar attendees ex- plained to this reporter the real in-equities facing inland waterways. HMTF ? the money is there The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund was a hot topic this week. With industry fully aware that it pockets $1.5 billion in receipts from users every year and yet only gives back $850 million to infra- structure, inland waterways stakehold- ers want the full value of that fund disbursed for its original purpose. Be- yond this, however and more impor- tantly is the largely unrecognized value that the USACE delivers to the U.S. Treasury, while receiving a poor return in mutual funding for its efforts. But, in an organization that once saw its leader fired for complaining about the paucity of dredging funds, USACE employees are loath to speak publicly about the in-equities. And, the USACE budget has shrunk from about $7.5 billion in 1970to the newly proposed level of $4.7 bil- lion.Privately, one USACE advocate told me, ?About $1.5 billion of the proposed budget goes towards paying 20,000 em- ployees. $3.0 billion is simply not enough to fund 1600 critical infrastruc-ture projects. As the nation?s locks and dams reach and exceed their intended working lifespan, a catastrophic failure is almost upon us.? Another individual, speaking on background, went on to ex- plain that the unrecognized $1.5 billionbeing realized in the Treasury?s coffers as a direct function of USACE efforts needs to be returned to the Corps so thatthe cycle can continue. Intangible bene- fits realized from USACE efforts go far beyond the obvious transportation met- rics and extend to federal hydropower revenues and enhancement of recre- ational and environmental concerns. Predictably, there was no one at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Tuesday who disagreed.Inland Waterways User Board: USACE Operates in ?Vacuum? without it Exacerbating an already bad situation,said WCI Seminar attendees, was the discontinuation of the Inland Waterways User Board, which because of red tapeand heightened membership nominationissues has been inactive since August. Effectively, this leaves the USACE op- erating in a vacuum as they go about the analysis that will eventually yield the in- Inland Crisis: in the Water, at the Locks and ? in Washington, too? MR March 12 # 10 (73-80):MR Template 3/6/2012 8:49 AM Page 74