With spring’s longer and warmer days, many of us are getting out to enjoy Illinois’ multitude of diverse rivers and streams. These winding waterways are often the closest, perhaps the only, bit of natural landscape that many Illinois residents have for recreation and rejuvenation.
A few of us might still be stuck inside, scrambling to finish our tax returns. This year, whether you are writing a check to, or waiting for a check from, Uncle Sam, you may wonder how your tax dollars are being spent, and if they are being spent wisely, when it comes to protecting Illinois’ rivers.
Our federal tax dollars are appropriated among a myriad of agencies with water-related responsibilities ranging from administering farm conservation and safe drinking water programs to enforcing the Clean Water Act. Chief among these receiving agencies is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps). The Corps’ responsibility to aid navigation began in the 1820s on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Expansive river modifications began in the early 1900s as locks and dams were constructed to accomodate the large barges that replaced steamboats and other smaller boats for cargo shipments. Today, with its navigation mission covering more than 12,000 miles of inland waterways, the Corps reigns supreme in having the power to impact river ecosystems and river-dependent economies for years to come.
Taxpayer dollars determine what Corps’ projects and programs continue, which are put on hold and which may be discontinued (due to lack of funding). In the midst of federal budget madness, what can taxpayers who love their rivers do? More than you think.
As a part of Prairie Rivers Network’s efforts to watchdog the Corps’ activities on the Upper Mississippi River System, we annually track federal tax dollars going to the agency. In this and future articles, we invite you to join Prairie Rivers Network as we reveal some of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly aspects of Corps budgeting.
Our tour begins with the President’s Annual Budget. This year’s budget, released in February, allocates almost $17.9 million to the Corps’ UMRS Ecosystem Management Program. Would this be money well-spent? The answer is: Yes, but it should get enough money to do the job right. A primary goal of this Corps program is to rehabilitate and enhance the habitat and ecosystem of the Upper Miss. Continued funding for EMP is essential to keep it alive, but we must also press for full funding of the program. The program should be funded up to $33.17 million, but since 2009, it has averaged less than two-thirds of that amount.
Here’s why this program should be fully funded: Once a fully integrated and complex large river ecosystem, in less than 200 years the Upper Mississippi River’s once thriving forests, wetlands and floodplain habitats have been submerged, eroded and otherwise extensively damaged by locks and dams. Inadequate appropriations mean fewer good projects, like Banner Marsh in Illinois, and reduced capability to adequately conduct long-term monitoring of completed projects (the Long Term Resource Management Program, is the second component of the Corps’ restoration program). Inadequate appropriations means the loss of opportunities to design and implement more effective restoration techniques for the Upper Miss, techniques that could also be applied to other large river systems in our country and others.
On an individual but no less important scale, inadequate appropriations means the continued loss and degradation of what used to be a favored fishing spot for generations of families living in any one of the river’s communities, or a riverine wetlands enjoyed by out-of-state visitors.
As you mark another tax year passing, consider that as the Corps budget proceeds through Congress, the House and Senate can increase or decrease appropriations for the Environmental Management Program. But individuals you like have the power to press your elected officials for continued, adequate funding for this needed program. We’ll keep you informed on the status of the Corps’ restoration funding and how you protect that funding throughout the FY13 budgeting process.
Next Stop: Slush funds and Corps projects that won’t die
