Bi-Partisan House WRRDA Bill Rolled Out

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has rolled out the long-awaited Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA, formerly WRDA - "reform" is new) yesterday. Bill H.R. 3080 is sponsored by Chair Bill Shuster (R-PA), Nick Rahall, Committee Ranking Member (D-WV), and Bob Gibbs (R-OH) and Tim Bishop (D-NY), both members of the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee.

The public relations blitz surrounding the bill's release is impressive, consisting of a press conference, press release, a colorful summary of the bill's expected accomplishments, as well as a "white-board" video, narrated by Chairman Shuster extoling the benefits of the waterways to the U.S. economy and the virtues of the proposed bill. Finally, a full text of HR 3080 is attached here.

This legislation, if passed, would be the first WRDA bill since 2007. Among the reform provisions are a deadline and monetary cap on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' studies, a streamlining of environmental reviews, and reform of the Harbor Maintenance Tax Trust Fund and the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. For the HMTF, the bill sets target expenditures of up to 80% of HMT revenue by 2020. For the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF), the bill caps expenditure for the never-ending money pit Olmstead lock and dam project at 25% annual cost-share, freeing up IWTF funds for other inland projects. The bill also expresses the "sense of congress" that the annual appropriation for the Olmstead project should be no less than $150 million per year until completed (Sec. 213(3)).

Other interesting aspects of the bill include the funding mechanism, potential operation function of corps facilities by private parties (Sec. 225), and a mandate for the corps to inventory its property not essential to its mission which could be sold. The funding mechanism is to use $12 billion for projects funded before the 2007 WRDA bill which have not started, which the bill Summary somewhat euphemistically describes as "fully offsets new authorizations with deauthorizations."

The bill also creates a "Water Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Program" to encourage private participation in USACE projects, as well as creating an "Inland Waterways Stakeholder Roundtable" to address the needs of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and support the needs of the Inland Waterways System. (Sec. 215).

Actual action on this an ambitious attempt to fund port and inland waterway structure will of course remain to be seen given the looming fiscal and debt ceiling crises Congress faces.

Failure to Fund Water Infrastructure Cited by National Research Council

The National Research Council's latest report on water infrastructure funding finds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces an "unsustainable situation" in maintaining national water projects at acceptable levels of performance. A press release announcing the report is attached here, and a summary of the larger report is attached here. The full report can be obtained in pre-publication format from the NRC's website. The NRC report states the familiar rallying cry that decades-old locks and dams threaten the inland waterway system, and the economic activity the inland waterways sustain. Somewhat distressing is the foreboding, but realistic, statement that despite calls for funding and repairs, gradual deterioration will effectively require discommissioning of locks and dams: "Parts of the system could be decomissioned and divested, but it is more likely that the lock and dam network will be modified by gradual deterioration rather than any planned decomissioning."

Engineer Group's "Failure to Act" Report Addresses Airport, Inland Waterways, and Port Infrastructure

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) published its latest "Failure to Act" report addressing U.S. infrastructure. The lastest report is "The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Airports, Inland Waterways, and Marine Ports." Needless to say from the title of the paper, the ASCE advocates investment in infrastructure projects. Among the interesting contents of the report are various graphs and charts, including graphs of costs (by commodity) from the use of undersized vessels in shallow harbors, lost trade due to gaps in inland waterway and port investment, and the top 10 sectors to be affected by decline in waterborne trade in 2020. This latest report is ASCE's third in the "Failure to Act" series, having previously published reports on Surface Transportation and Water and Wastewater.

Maritime Transportation Advisory Council to Meet on Marine Highway Recommendations

The Marine Transportation System National Advisory Council (MTSNAC) has announced a meeting on May 8, 2012 at the USDOT in Washington, DC. The stated purpose of the meeting is to discuss recommendations the Council will make to the Secretary of Transportation "on the integration of marine highways into the national transportation system and the development of a steady and reliable funding mechanism for infrastructure development." The meeting announcement is attached here.

Public participation is available in the afternoon session and those wishing to speak must advise the Maritime Administration by May 1, 2012. The Council will accept written comments until May 11, 2012.

A Copy of the Council's Charter is attached here.

More information about the Marine Highway system is available here from the MARAD website.

U.S. House Holds Hearing on Aging Inland Waterways Systems

On September 21, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment held a hearing on the economic importance of the inland waterways system, and the critical challenges posed by aging infrastructure.

A press release from the Subcommittee attached here, explains both the economic benefit of water-borne commerce, but also the potential hazard to continued commerce posed by aging infrastructure, including locks that have been in service for decades.

In addition to Subcommittee Chair Bob Gibbs (R-OH), who called for addressing infrastructure needs to keep "American farms and businesses competitive and growing American jobs," other witnesses included Larry Bray of the University of Tennessee's Center for Transportation Research, Mike Tooehy, President of the Waterways Council, Inc., and Steve Ebke of the National Corn Growers Association.

A link to written testimony is attached here.