 Corps of Engineers Peoria, Ill., lock is on the list.
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In the House, a $12-billion-plus Water Resources Development Act sailed through the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on March 15. A floor vote may come by the Easter recess. In the Senate, the Environment and Public Works Committee expects to vote on its still-unveiled bill by the end of March.
“I think the prospects for congressional passage are pretty high,” says an industry source. “I have much greater doubts about what will happen when that bill gets submitted downtown” to the White House. The Bush administration has raised concerns about the costs of earlier WRDA bills and the new one promises to be no smaller. The House panel’s version totals $12 billion to $13 billion, says Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.). But there has not been a WRDA signed into law in more than six years. “This is pent-up demand,” he says. “This is urgent need.”
House Bill's Projects Include: | |
| PROJECT | ($Mil.) FEDERAL FUNDS |
| UPPER MISSISSIPPI/ILLINOIS WATERWAY: | |
| -7 new, 1,200-ft locks | 1,795 |
| -Ecosystem restoration | 1,580 |
| -Moorings, switchboats, etc. | 235 |
| EVERGLADES: | |
| -Indian River Lagoon | 683 |
| -Picayune Strand | 188 |
| -Hillsboro/Okeechobee Aquifer | 43 |
| -Site 1 Impoundment | 40 |
| MORGANZA, LA.-GULF (storm protection) | 576 |
| LOUISIANA COASTAL RESTORATION: | |
| -Miss. River Gulf Outlet enviro. restoration | 105 |
| -Hope Canal diversion | 69 |
| -Barataria basin barrier shoreline | 243 |
| -Myrtle Grove medium diversion | 278 |
| -Demonstration projects | 100 |
| -Chenier Plain (5 projects) | 185 |
| -Beneficial use of dredged material | 100 |
Source: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee | |
Oberstar says the bill his panel cleared is about the same as the one the House passed in 2005. To speed the new one along, he says he excluded projects that were not in the 2005 bill or earlier ones that did not make it to enactment. One addition to the 2005 measure is a provision to shut the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which critics contend funnelled Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge at the New Orleans area.
Still, “we were dismayed that the...committee chose to simply ignore the lessons in the wake of Katrina and has moved forward essentially the same bill that [former] Chairman Don Young had passed” before the hurricane, says David Conrad, National Wildlife Federation senior water resources specialist.
In all, the bill contains about $2.4 billion for Louisiana and for Florida.“That’s where the needs are,” Oberstar says. The upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway do even better, receiving $3.4 billion for seven 1,200-ft-long locks, environmental restoration projects and other items.
fter coming close to passing a big water resources bill last year, Congress is trying again. At stake are authorizations for billions of dollars for hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects.
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