Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Investments: Legislation in the 109th Congress

Publication Date: December 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

Type:

Abstract:

The Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (UMR-IWW) is at the center of a debate over the future of inland navigation, the restoration of rivers used for multiple purposes, and the reliability and completeness of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers analyses justifying investments. Consequently, authorization of investments in navigation and ecosystem restoration of the UMR-IWW played a role in Water Resources Development Act (WRDA, H.R. 2864) debates in the 109th Congress; among the topics debated were the cost, urgency, necessity, and national benefit of expanded UMR-IWW navigation capacity and ecosystem restoration, given the constraints and competition for Corps construction funding. During the 109th Congress, the House and Senate both passed a Water Resources Development Act bill (H.R. 2864); conferees were named, but no further action was taken.

The UMR-IWW is a 1,200-mile, 9-foot-deep navigation channel created by 37 lock-and-dam sites and thousands of channel training structures built beginning in 1822. The UMR-IWW makes commercial navigation possible between Minneapolis and St. Louis on the Mississippi River, and along the Illinois Waterway from Chicago to the Mississippi River. It permits upper midwestern states to benefit from low-cost barge transport. Since the 1980s, the system has experienced increasing traffic delays, purportedly reducing competitiveness of U.S. products in some global markets. The river is also losing the habitat diversity that has allowed it to support an unusually large number of species for a temperate river. This loss is partially attributable to changes in the distribution and movement of river water caused by navigation structures and operation of the 9-foot navigation channel.

In December 2004, the Corps' Chief of Engineers approved a UMR-IWW 50year framework for navigation and ecosystem restoration investments, as laid out in a Corps final feasibility report. This framework consists of combined navigation investments ($2.4 billion) and ecosystem restoration investments ($5.3 billion), to be accomplished through incremental implementation. For the first increment, the Chief recommends authorizing $1.88 billion (50% from the Inland Waterway Trust Fund and 50% from federal general revenues) for seven new locks and small-scale navigation measures, and $1.46 billion ($1.33 billion from federal general revenue and $0.13 billion from nonfederal partners) for ecosystem restoration.

The House and Senate versions of WRDA would have authorized investments in navigation ($2.03 billion) and ecosystem restoration ($1.58 billion) for the UMRIWW. The language would have authorized most of the initial set of activities recommended in the Corps' feasibility report. This CRS report compares the bill language from the 109th Congress with the Corps' feasibility report.