The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ much-plagued and scandalized study of how to improve the efficiency of commercial navigation traffic on the Upper Mississippi River above St. Louis and on the Illinois River from Peoria to the Mississippi River was restarted in August of 2001.
The Corps restart recognizes that the previous study, limited to examining just improvement to commercial navigation, was too limited, and failed to address key concerns regarding the environmental degradation that has occurred in sixty plus years of damming-up these rivers and the resulting increase in barge traffic.
A paraphrasing of the restated Goals and Objectives of the Navigation Study reveals their observations on how to proceed:
· The navigation system is aged and inefficient.
· The ecosystem of both waterways is in decline.
· The growing barge traffic may accelerate the decline, perhaps precipitously.
· The stated the goals are to improve effectiveness of the navigation system, andto achieve environmental sustainability of the navigation system and the resources it directly impacts, and to explore developing a comprehensive and holistic approach considering multiple purpose uses.
Clearly this leaves lots of room for interpretation and the environmental community is approaching the restarted study with cautious optimism. The Corps study team, located in the Rock Island District, is aggressively pursuing a policy of collaboration with all potential partners and to their credit are attempting to move the study forward in that atmosphere.
The Corps Study Team is tasked by Corps Headquarters with completing an Interim Report for forwarding to Congress by July 2002. This report is not intended to complete the study, but rather to update Headquarters and Congress on how the team believes it must proceed under the new collaborative atmosphere and with a balance of all resources towards sustainability in mind. Potential conflicts in current authorities that restrict Corps management in achieving sustainability should be identified in the report, as well as outlining a framework by which the Navigation Study can be completed and comprehensive planning needs addressed.
The key is comprehensive planning of managing all the uses of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Since 1986, the Federal government has invested well over $1 billion in rehabilitating and restoring the concrete and mechanical/electrical components of the locks and dams. An additional $1 billion was invested in the building of the new Lock and Dam 26 near Alton, Illinios. Additionally over $800 million went into regular annual operations and maintenance of the locks and dams, bringing the commercial navigation investment to nearly $3 billion. During this same time period, only about $220 million was invested into the Environmental Management Program initiated out of compromises on building the second 1200 foot lock at Lock and Dam 26 at Alton.
Biologists all agree that the river ecosystems are in serious decline due to sedimentation of backwaters, resuspension of sediment due to barge wake action, and wind fetch due to loss of backwater and side-channel habitat areas. The in-balance of current management practices must be changed to restore these rivers. The restarted Navigation Study, if done with a requirement for achieving sustainable ecological operations of the commercial navigation system, may provide the proper management atmosphere. But it will require vigilance. The study will last a minimum of two more years and realistically, comprehensive management requires constant study and management assessment of ongoing operations and observation of natural resource changes. This isn’t going away any time soon.
In mid-March, the Corps hosted five public meetings to update the public on the restarted study and to elicit feedback regarding the new study approach. Sierra Club members around the state voiced their interest in the Corps pursuing comprehensive management options, as we all believe the law requires, and voiced the need for a restored river ecosystem.
For further information contact Sierra Club Mississippi River Protection Project Volunteer Coodinator, Mark Beorkrem, at 314-882-8425 or at mbeorkrem@hotmail.com.