UMBSN Navigation Study Comment

To: USACE Restructured Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway (UMR-IWW) System Navigation Study
Re: Formal Comment, Public Meeting, October 29, La Crosse , WI
From: Barry Drazkowski - Director, Upper Mississippi Basin Stakeholder Network

[Read into the meeting record by Dick Hegle, UMBSN Coordinator:]

This is an extraordinary amount of money to invest in the managing of the ecological
restoration portion of the plan and the implementation challenge will be in providing a
Federal oversight process to guide how funds are spent.

This should not be done by local or state committees, who may allow state or parochial
interests to direct project or program selection. It will be necessary to have
Federal or regional oversight to best manage the large expenditures of this proposal.

We note that recreation is not part of the plan or evaluation of alternatives. As recreation
is a growing and expanding area of interest to stakeholders in the basin area, this area of
management needs to be included in this plan.

A greater emphasis needs to be placed on science and monitoring to validate and measure
the performance of these projects and programs. This allows the plans to be changed and
different directions taken, if the projects show intended performance does not meet the
environmental program requirements. This may then be presented to the public so that
they may be assured this money is being used in the best interest of the river and the
river basin.

We recommend the implementation of federal and state oversight such as described in the
Upper Mississippi Stewardship Initiative plan. This model provides specific monitoring
and documentation to measure performance.

Additionally, the restoration and acquisition of land for restoration, should be included in
the language of the plan. This strategy is particularly effective on the lower portion of
the river. In the scope of the 50 year period of the plan, the acquisition of land for
floodplain restoration is a valid alternative to address current and long term needs.

Barry Drazkowski - Director
Upper Mississippi Basin Stakeholder Network
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota
Department of Resource Analysis
360 Vila Street #7
Winona, MN 55987

Report from the LaCrosse, Wisconsin, October 29^th, 2003 Public Meeting on the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway System Navigation Feasibility Study

by David C. Wilson, Upper Mississippi Basin Stakeholders Network

On the evening of Wednesday, the 29^th of October, 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public meeting in La Crosse, Wisconsin to present the preliminary findings of their revised Navigation Feasibility Study. The study was revised from its original 1992 version in order to address the need for environmental protection and restoration in the ecosystems affected by the ongoing navigation channel maintenance project. The economic and traffic forecast models were also re-examined in an attempt to dispel concerns over allegations that the Corps had tweaked those models to justify the navigation enhancement project. The results presented by the Corps show that the greatest potential economic benefit would come from Navigation Option #6. Similarly, the greatest environmental benefit would come from Environmental Option E. These are the two most costly options and must be balanced against the availability of funds and the likelihood of the traffic level scenarios used to develop them.

The Corps, however, did not assign probabilities to the various scenarios that were developed. Instead, factors influencing barge traffic levels including: acres in production, yields, grain consumption rates, and related driving factors were set to different levels and in different combinations to come up with the various projections. The navigation and environmental options were then analyzed with respect to their cost-benefit ratio under each of the different scenarios. The preferred option should have the best overall performance within the expected bounds of a range of possible traffic scenarios.

Most of the commentary from farmers and navigation interests suggested that 10 years of studying the need for new, extended locks was enough, and that it is time to start upgrading the navigation infrastructure. Many farmers came forward with examples of how delays at locks during shipping season have cost them significantly through lost profits due to increased shipping costs lowered profits. One farmer noted that he lost $60,000 when a single lock went through a scheduled shutdown causing his market cost to increase by 10 cents per bushel. Among others, Kent Pehler of Brennan Marine, Inc. in La Crosse noted that stakeholders in the Upper Mississippi Basin have contributed 40% of the dollars held in the Inland Waterway Trust Fund designed to ensure funding for needed maintenance of the navigation infrastructure on the Mississippi River and other Inland Waterways via a fuel tax. At the same time, Upper Mississippi River stakeholders have received only 14% of the benefit paid out from this fund in the form of infrastructure investment. Due to the current benefit provided to the economy by the availability of bulk goods transport on the river, investment in the river transportation infrastructure seems to be justified.

The question and answer period was helpful because it allowed people to voice their concerns about the methodology and findings of the study. Although overall the study was a very reasonable attempt at analyzing the potential results of the infrastructure and environmental projects being proposed, an important methodological concern continues to be the narrow set of factors included in the economic model. Multiple questions addressed the potential problems associated with a five scenario economic model used in this study. Of the five alternative scenarios, four assume large increases in bulk goods transport on the river while the remaining scenario assumes a very slight decrease in barge traffic. To some this seems like another attempt to stack the deck, so to speak, in favor of alternatives assuming a need for expanded navigation infrastructure.

Heather Schooner of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy acknowledges that increases in navigation efficiency are needed, but qualifies that statement by asserting that future needs will not be as high as reflected by the alternatives of the Navigation Study. Schooner points out that barge traffic peaked in the late 1970’s and ‘80’s and will not increase for a number of reasons. Schooner also noted that lock delays have not increased since 1989 and that non-structural measures including electric winches have cut double lockage times by 30-45 minutes in some locations.

Among the reasons why barge traffic might not increase is Brazil’s immense increase in corn and soybean production at prices that American producers cannot hope to match. One reason for the low cost of Brazilian grain is the low cost of land in Brazil. Although farm subsidies, long a mainstay of American agricultural policy, are designed to compensate farmers for the cost of growing grain that is then sold at an artificially low market price, the net result is an artificial increase in the perceived monetary value of the farm land. The corresponding increase in taxes translates to higher production costs that must then be offset by either higher sale prices or higher subsidies.

Another factor that may throw the economic forecast off is the recent increase in China’s grain production. Contrary to the assumption that China will be a major importer of American grain, China has actually produced sufficient grain to support an export market in recent years. According to the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily, China is positioned to become a global grain exporter. Although China continues to import large quantities of soybeans and soybean products, corn exports from China have increased to approximately 13 million tons in 2002.

Another concern that was raised during the meeting was the perceived lack of recreational beach maintenance in recent years due to dredge sand being stockpiled rather than deposited on nearby islands. Gretchen Benjamin, the Mississippi River Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, made a statement assuring stakeholders that beach maintenance does still occur with the assistance of heavy equipment and operators from local businesses such as Brennan Marine, Inc. of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Since the river is an increasingly popular recreation destination, maintaining and funding a recreation management plan will be of growing importance in the overall environmental plan. The perceived lack of high quality recreational beaches may be a symptom of the heightened recreational use levels in recent years. Fees collected through limited regulation of recreational users in the National Fish and Wildlife Refuge area that encompasses much of the Upper Mississippi River could also serve as a source of funding for maintenance and restoration projects. 

Some environmental groups expressed concern that once the new locks are built, funding for environmental management and monitoring might dry up. Representatives of the Corps noted that although the Corps currently has wide authority on transportation and navigation infrastructure issues, it has very little environmental management authority. A dual purpose navigation/environmental plan would place a much wider authority in the hands of the Corps and help to ensure continued funding for ecological management. In anticipation of this potential shift in authority, the Corps stated that some restoration funds could be used for land acquisition on an opportunistic basis when sellers are willing. The Corps seems to be wisely trying very hard to avoid a situation in which their potential environmental restoration efforts could be perceived as an attempted land grab by the government.  

Environmental interests present at the meeting did not show the unified front of the agricultural and transportation contingent. Chris Brescia of Marc 2000 noted this lack of a cohesive goal and strategy as a major shortcoming in the battle for environmental restoration funding. Brescia stated that the acquisition of funding requires a constant effort of communication with congressmen and policy makers year after year to initiate and maintain awareness of the need for funding. The complexity of the big river ecosystem belies any simple, one-size fits all approach to environmental restoration and tends to divide strategies for restoration among regional groups of stakeholders. The current Navigation Study presents an opportunity to consolidate the restoration efforts of various groups into a coherent and focused strategy that has a chance of leading us to a more stable future for the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterways. The inclusion of a focused recreation plan that anticipates growth in activities ranging from recreational boating, hunting, and fishing to more serene outdoor activities such as bird watching and camping will need to be an integral part of any comprehensive plan to address the long-term integrity of our river ecosystem.