A decade of steps back? Budget falls short on water infrastructure
President Obama's proposal to cut $1.4 billion from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' budget would set maintenance of the nation's water infrastructure "back more than a decade."
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Chickamauga Lock. Credit: Leon Roberts via US Army Corps of Engineers/Wikimedia Commons |
That is according to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who
also said the budget, or lack thereof, would leave Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) owned Chickamauga Lock stalled after two
years of progress.
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Energy and Water Development, said at a budget hearing with the
Corps, who operates the lock, that the U.S. should build on
water infrastructure investments made last year, which provided
a record nearly $6 billion to the Corps to invest in water
infrastructure.
"This budget request is an enormous step backward. In fact, if
we simply approved the president's request, the Corps of
Engineers would receive less than what Congress appropriated in
fiscal year 2006, setting us back more than a decade," Alexander
said, adding that 138 of the nation's locks are more than 50
years old. "Our locks are the only way for many shippers to
easily move things like grain, steel, fertilizer and coal up and
down rivers, and having to unexpectedly shut them down for
extended periods of time could be catastrophic for agriculture
and other commodities that rely on the locks to get their goods
to market…President Obama should make funding for our nation's
waterways a priority, but this year's budget request certainly
doesn't reflect that."
President Obama's fiscal year 2017 budget request proposes to cut the Corps of Engineers' budget by 23 percent. President Obama's request focuses mainly on Olmsted Locks and Dam in Illinois and Kentucky – and, according to Alexander, leaves an estimated $72 million in fees paid by barge owners to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund for lock and dam maintenance unspent. Congress increased user fees that are paid into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund at the request of commercial barge owners who rely on the locks and dams to make their livings to speed up construction of locks and dams, including Chickamauga Lock.
"The biggest problem here is you are not spending the money you are collecting," Alexander said. "Critical projects, such as replacing Chickamauga Lock in my home state of Tennessee, have been piling up for years due to a lack of funding, and many of us in Congress have recognized that we needed to take steps to increase funding for the Corps of Engineers to address this backlog."
The fiscal year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill signed into law in December included enough funding to continue construction at the Olmsted Locks and Dam, the Lower Monongahela River Locks and Dams and the Kentucky Lock and Dam with approximately $29 million left available to continue construction of the new Chickamauga Lock. This funded Chickamauga Lock for the second consecutive year.
According to the Corps of Engineers Work Plan released in February, the $29.9 million for Chickamauga Lock will be enough to begin lock excavation, install anchors and construct a retaining wall. The Corps of Engineers estimates that it will need an additional $1.009 billion in future years to replace Chickamauga Lock.
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