[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1473-E1474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

                                 ______


                               speech of

                          HON. STEVE GUNDERSON

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 12, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1905) making 
     appropriations for energy and water development for the 
     fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. GUNDERSON. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would restrict the Corps 
from using funds appropriated under this bill to study the capacity 
needs of the Mississippi River above Lock and Dam 14 in the vicinity of 
Moline, IL, and Bettendorf, IA. The amendment explicitly protects the 
Corps' environmental baseline studies required to comply with the 
National Environmental Policy Act.
  The Gunderson amendment is necessary because the resources required 
to improve the lock and dam system will be available only for those 
locks and dams that are insufficient to handle increasing commercial 
barge traffic. For that reason, we must limit the resources 
appropriated under this bill to those locks where navigation 
improvements are most needed.
  The Upper Mississippi River System is extremely rare among large 
rivers. It is a vital navigation channel and its five refuges provide 
vital habitats for fish and waterfowl of all types. Recreation on the 
upper river yields $1.2 billion annually in economic benefits. For 
these reasons, Congress has recognized the Upper Mississippi as a dual-
purpose waterway: a nationally significant ecosystem and a significant 
commercial navigation system.
  Congress authorized the current 9 foot navigation channel and system 
of locks and dams in 1930. The system has flourished ever since, and 
today the Upper Mississippi System includes 37 locks and dams and over 
360 terminals. The navigation system carries a large portion of this 
Nation's coal and corn--over half the corn exported from this country 
is shipped via the Upper Mississippi River by barge.
  Gradual increases in commercial barge traffic, especially in the last 
30 years, have strained the lock and dam system on the lower portion of 
the Upper Mississippi River. Cargo transported on the Upper Mississippi 
has increased from about 27 million tons in 1960 to 91 million tons in 
1990--about a 340-percent increase. Because many of the locks were 
designed to handle only a fraction of this traffic, backlogs on the 
lower locks have formed. Much of this is due to the confluence of 
several large rivers below Lock and Dam 20--the Missouri River, the 
Illinois Waterway, and the Upper Mississippi.
  Evidence of the delays on the lower locks has begun to mount. In a 
November 1994 newspaper article, the Corps indicated that there is a 
bottleneck at four or five locks just above St. Louis. Barges delayed 
because of heavy traffic cost consumers, farmers and businesses a great 
deal of money. In 1992, tows at the Upper Mississippi River locks 20 
through 25 were delayed a total of 87,000 hours at a cost of $35 
million.
  Mr. Chairman, the Corps began the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois 
Waterway System Navigation Study in 1993 to assess the need for 
expansion at all 37 locks in the system. In addition, the study is 
designed to determine the potential impacts on the river, navigation, 
the economy and the environment and to prioritize infrastructure 
improvements over a 50-year time frame. Although I agree with the need 
to assess the needs for additional investment on a system-wide basis, 
Mr. Chairman, the fiscal realities are that no significant lock and dam 
improvements will be done above Lock and Dam 14. In fact, the Corps 
itself does not foresee any major improvement projects in that area 
before the year 2050.
  At a time when the Congress is trying to balance the budge in 7 
years, we must insist that the money we do allocate is used 
efficiently. Locks 1 through 14 on the Upper Mississippi have the 
lowest proportion of traffic, so substantial navigation improvements 
are not a high priority in that area. My amendment would recognize this 
need by restricting the Corps' navigation study to the lock and dam 
system below Lock and Dam 14 near Moline, Illinois. However, the 
amendment specifically allows the Corps to fulfill its responsibilities 
for conducting baseline environmental studies under the National 
Environmental Policy Act, and for determining the economic impacts of 
projects on the lower portion, if such impacts can reasonably be 
foreseen above Lock and Dam 14.
  Substantial improvements on the first 14 locks on the Upper 
Mississippi River will not be funded in the next 50 years because the 
Inland Waterway Trust Fund does not have sufficient funds to pay for 
such improvements. Improvements on the inland navigation system, 
including on the Mississippi River, are funded 50 percent by the 
Federal Government and 50 percent by the inland Waterway Trust Fund. 
The commercial navigation industry supports the trust fund through a 
fuel tax.
  Assuming a current rate of increase, the trust fund will not even be 
able to support major improvements to the most heavily congested locks 
on the upper river, let alone locks 1 through 14. In fiscal year 1994, 
the trust fund had a net increase--receipts minus appropriations--of 
$21 million; in fiscal year 1995, the trust fund had a net increase of 
$43 million. Assuming a net increase of $50 million a year, and not 
considering other construction projects undertaken by the Corps--for 
example, Ohio River improvements, by the year 2025, the Inland Waterway 
Trust Fund would only contain approximately $1.8 billion. The cost of 
building a new lock, by Corps estimates, is $350 million. Given that, 
construction of six new 1200 foot locks in the most congested areas of 
the river would cost as much as $2.1 billion in fiscal year 1995). The 
trust 

[[Page E 1474]]
fund's 50-percent share would be enough only to cover the required 
projects if the Corps did not undertake navigation projects on any 
other river.
  Given that estimate, and by the Corps' own conservative estimates, 
new projects above Lock and Dam 14 seem unlikely. According to a Corps 
analysis of the trust fund through 2025, under a scenario considering 
the very highest possible revenues, projects above Lock and Dam 14 
could not feasibly be undertaken until well after 2025. That analysis 
estimates a balance of $22.6 million at the end of 2024, with estimated 
receipts of $161.3 million for fiscal year 1995. In order to avoid a 
trust fund deficit, only 5 of the most important 6 projects, all below 
Lock and Dam 20, could even be started before 2025.
  Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the importance of commercial navigation on 
the Upper Mississippi River and believe it is important to assess the 
needs for navigation improvements to the lock and dam system. I offer 
this amendment to limit the geographical scope of the study, however, 
because I do not want to see scarce and valuable resources used to 
examine a portion of the lock and dam system that will not see any 
significant structural improvements for the next 50 years. Any study of 
the system above Lock and Dam 14 completed now would, without a doubt, 
have to be repeated by the time new projects in that area were 
undertaken, as the Corps, quite understandably, does not have the 
modeling capabilities to accurately foresee 50 years into the future. 
So let's not expend energy and money on a study that will not provide 
any useful results.


                          ____________________