Crumbling concrete vividly demonstrates the need for major investments in the country’s lock and dam system. The Senate is debating the Water Resources Development Act to fund such investments.

Senate debate is under way on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), legislation that will modernize an antiquated river infrastructure and provide for major ecosystem restoration, notes the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).
 
Debate is expected to continue into Monday. A vote could be as early as Tuesday.
 
In a letter to Senate leadership, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and associated staff  on Thursday, NCGA President Ken McCauley expressed thanks for bring WRDA to the floor swiftly and highlighted the need for immediate passage of this legislation.
 
In addition to significant improvements to environmental habitats, WRDA includes modernization of locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, including a 15-year project for construction of seven 1200-foot locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. The legislation would also implement small-scale measures immediately and create a major ecosystem restoration program.
 
Citing the important role the river system has to the nation’s economy, McCauley wrote to Senate members just how critical the inland waterways system is to growers and consumers.
 
“Our country’s inland navigation system plays a critical role in our nation’s economy, moving more than a billion tons of domestic commerce valued at more than $300 billion,” McCauley said. “More than 1 billion bushels of grain (about 60 percent of all grain exports) move to export markets via the inland waterways each year, accounting for $8.5 billion in exports.”
 
McCauley also pointed out the significant benefits of barge traffic on the environment.
 
“There are significant environmental benefits such as better air quality of moving bulk commodities by barge on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers,” he said. “Inland waterways also relieve the serious congestion on already over-crowded highways and railways.”
 
McCauley said one jumbo barge has the same capacity as 58 trucks or 15 rail cars. A typical 15-barge tow is equivalent of removing 870 trucks from our overcrowded highways. One gallon of fuel in a towboat can carry one ton of freight 2.5 times farther than rail and nine times farther than truck.
 
Of particular note in Thursday’s debate, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pointed out letters of support in her floor speech, including the NCGA letter. Boxer highlighted the work corn growers have done promoting WRDA as she entered NCGA’s letter into the congressional record.
 
“I appreciate the strong support from the carpenters, corn growers, farm bureau, soybean growers, energy and construction materials industry,” she said. “We keep adding to the letters of support . . . in favor of this bill, so it is one of these rare moments in history where we have the manufacturers association, the labor unions, we have the farmers, we have the corn growers, and we have the water people.”
 
To view the NCGA letter, click here.