Big Price – Little Benefit for expanded locks on the Mississippi River

Yesterday, Prairie Rivers Network and our partners in the Nicollet Island Coalition released a report condemning proposed expansion of 7 of the 29 locks that aid navigation along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers got Congressional authorization in 2007 to double the size of the locks, at a potential cost to taxpayers of $2.2 billion. Our report shows that the modest benefits the project aims to achieve can be achieved much more cheaply through other means. View our press release here. Download the Big Price – Little Benefit report here.

Tri-States Public Radio (Macomb, IL) covered the story.

The toll on river health of the Corps-maintained navigation system on the Upper Mississippi River is tremendous – the 29 locks and dams have altered the free-flowing and dynamic river between Minneapolis and St. Louis into a static series of enormous, homogeneous reservoirs. Coupled with the massive levee works along the river, created in the mis-guided belief that the floodplain could be successfully reclaimed from the river and used for farming and development, the locks and dams have devastated the Mississippi River. River health has been severely degraded, as have the direct benefits the river produces for people: drinking water for 18 million people, floodwater storage, natural filtering of pollution, commercial and sports fisheries, a wide array of recreational activities.

While the stakes for river health are high, the report focuses on perhaps the strongest argument against undertaking the project – the economics simply do not justify the expenditure. Given a long term trend of decreasing barge traffic on the Mississippi (more and more Midwest grain is moved out to the markets of the world via rail), the likely return on taxpayer investment in the lock expansion would be around 20 cents on the dollar – that is, the barge industry would accrue around 20 cents in savings for every dollar of taxpayer investment.

The project is intended to increase the efficiency of barge transport of grain, but as the Big Price – Little Benefit report shows, there are less expensive fixes that can provide the same benefits. Implementing a fairly low-tech traffic control system at locks would decrease delays, and maintenance and rehabilitation of the existing locks will create jobs and keep the locks operating for another 50 years – the projected lifespan of the new locks. The cost of these fixes would be much lower than that for new locks, while addressing the needs of the navigation industry.

We were fortunate to secure the services of Dr. Donald Sweeney, former lead economist for the Corps on the project, for much of the economic analysis supporting our conclusions. His report is here.

What next?

The fate of the project rests with the U.S. Congress. The lock expansion project was authorized by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. Since that time, much more information about the true costs and benefits of the project have come to light, as we document in the Big Price – Little Benefit report. Perhaps that is the reason why both President Obama (and President Bush before him) has not appropriated money to build the new locks. It is likely that there will be a Water Resources Development Act of 2010 – this would be a perfect opportunity for Congress to de-authorize the project and instruct the Corps to carry out less costly improvements to the lock and dam system on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

Prairie Rivers Network will let you know how you can help get word to your representatives when the time is right.

The Nicollet Island Coalition is a group of conservation and environmental organizations formed in 1994 to address restoration issues on the Upper Mississippi River and provide coordinated advocacy work on Upper Mississippi River issues. Coalition partners include Prairie Rivers Network, the Izaak Walton League of America, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.iatp.org), National Wildlife Federation (www.nwf.org), and Sierra Club.