|
Biotechnology
| Ethanol | Transportation
| Trade | Research
| Farm Bill |
Conservation
Commentary:
Upgrade River Traffic or Downgrade Ag Exports
By Kenny Hulshof
Source: Grower's Association News
Publication date: 2001-09-04
St. Louis
Post-Dispatch 09/04/2001 03:14 AM
Growing up
on our family's farm in southeast Missouri, I quickly developed a multifaceted
admiration for the Mississippi River. Our farm was only a few miles
from this awesome waterway, and I grew to respect its power and appreciate
the levees that provided protection from floods. In the late fall and
again in the spring, flying V-shaped choruses of migrating waterfowl
serenaded us as they followed the river's path. One aspect of the Mississippi
River was critical to the financial success of our farming operation:
the ability to ship our crops to market.
The inland
waterway system is crucial to American agriculture. About one-third
of our nation's agricultural production is exported to other countries.
Sixty percent of those commodities pass downriver through locks and
dams at Granite City and Alton, destined for our ports near the Gulf
of Mexico. As barges return upriver, they often carry agricultural inputs
like fertilizers into the Midwest.
Fortunately
the two lock and dam systems in the St. Louis region were constructed
during our modern era, are 1,200 feet in length and remain state-of-the-art
in efficiency. The current navigation infrastructure on the Mississippi
River above St. Louis, however is woefully inadequate and is struggling
to meet today's demands.
The system
of locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi was designed and built primarily
during the 1930s with a life expectancy of 60 years. This system raises
and lowers barge traffic on the Upper Mississippi to compensate for
changes in the river's elevation. When built, this system of locks and
dams was designed to move 2 million tons of waterway traffic per year.
It now moves 60 times that amount.
Most locks
are 600 feet long. However, a modern tow and barge averages 1,100 feet
in length. To pass through a lock, a tow must stop, have the barges
broken into two parts, push each through the lock separately and be
put back together once all its parts are through the lock. This process
increases the wear and tear on the locks, leading to higher maintenance
expenses. Moreover, the river congestion and navigation delays caused
by "double-locking" drive up the cost of shipping commodities, meaning
lost income to farmers.
While the
U.S. continues to study and debate the merits of extending our antiquated
locks to 1,200 feet, our foreign competitors have been investing hundreds
of millions of dollars to modernize their transportation systems. The
overall effect of this situation is that our transportation costs are
slowly increasing, while our competitors' costs are quickly decreasing.
In fact, Brazil and Argentina have captured 50 percent of the total
growth in the world soybean market during the past three years. It has
never been clearer that now is the time to modernize our transportation
infrastructure on the Upper Mississippi River.
Improving
our lock system is not only good economics, but it is an ecologically
responsible decision. River transportation is the most environmentally
friendly form of shipping we have today. According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, towboats emit 35 to 60 percent fewer pollutants than
trains or trucks. A U.S. Department of Transportation study shows that
a gallon of diesel fuel in a towboat can push a ton of freight two and
a half times farther than rail and nine times farther than a truck.
An average tow and barge on the river replaces more than 800 semi-trucks
on our nation's overcrowded highways.
In addition,
backwaters created by the lock and dam system support more than 40 percent
of the migratory waterfowl and fish breeding grounds. Congress continues
to aggressively fund environment management programs that successfully
monitor the river ecosystem and.dramatically improve diverse wildlife
habitats. A collaborative conservation approach maintains more than
500 miles of wildlife refuge along the mighty Mississippi.
It is time
to make the same commitment to our inland waterway navigation system.
Farmers like my father feed our nation and the world. The modernization
and extension of locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River are critical
to their ability to remain competitive on the world market.
Kenny Hulshof,
R-Columbia, represents Missouri's ninth congressional district.
|