Upper Mississippi Basin Stakeholders Network Position Statement on the Restructured Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Navigation Feasibility Study

Presented by Dick Hegle at the June 9^th, 2004 COE Public Meeting in La Crosse, WI

The Upper Mississippi Basin Stakeholders Network represents all stakeholders within the basin who are concerned with clean water and a healthy environment. If water quality on the Mississippi River, and the health of the ecosystems that it sustains, are to be maintained, it is necessary that the environmental integrity of the river be restored.

Can the health of the river be improved and maintained for future generations?

Can a strong navigation system, clean water, and environmental integrity exist together?

We believe that navigation and a healthy environment can coexist. However, we are concerned that appropriations for environmental restoration may never materialize once the new locks are funded and installed. Without guarantees of restoration funding, we fear that the funds needed to repair the damage already incurred by the navigation system and to remediate new damage may never be disbursed. Appropriations committees and politics are famous for killing good programs by failing to fund them. It would be a travesty if this fate befell the ecosystem of the Upper Mississippi. The loss of wildlife and associated economic activity would be tragic.

Clean water is essential for all people in the basin. As users and stewards of the Upper Mississippi, we are beholden to protect the watersheds and ecosystems that provide us with clean water and a healthy environment. The Upper Mississippi River ecosystem is a major component of the broader system that links the woods and wetlands and the fields and streams of this region in a dynamic web that provides critical resources for people, wildlife, and navigation alike.

We would insist that new funding for environmental protection and restoration on the Upper Mississippi River be directly linked to expenditures on navigation improvement. That is not to say that environmental restoration should not proceed without expenditures on the navigation infrastructure, but rather that investment in navigation improvements should be pursued only subject to commensurate investment in environmental restoration projects.

The dual management mandate proposed by the US Army Corps of Engineers looks like a good plan. We hope that it is implemented as envisioned here today.