This is being shared with you to encourage you to issue a similar requests to your contacts and Congressional Representatives for an increase to the funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (PORTS®)program. The Big River Coalition has completed issuing this information to the entire Louisiana Delegation and other key members of both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. The Coalition’s request is focused solely on the Lower Mississippi River PORTS® program, although the increased funding would be sufficient to fund the entire program.
The effort is to fund the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs for the PORTS® program to maintain the current installations and to expand the system. The average annual PORTS® appropriation is $5 million, an increase of $10 million would fund the annual O&M costs of the national PORTS® program. By increasing this funding to a total of $15 million in Fiscal Year 2020 this critical program will be able to continue seamlessly. This appropriations increase would fund all presently approved PORTS® sensors, including three new PORTS suites (Kings Bay, GA, Coos Bay, OR and Honolulu, HI) and modernize all present and planned PORTS®.
This appropriations increase would also allow NOAA to fund their newly approved Precision Navigation projects on the Lower Mississippi River and New York/New Jersey.
The Coalition is utilizing the August recess to update this request and ask for your assistance in pursuing the additional $10 million for the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the PORTS® program.
A few Coalition members offered support to the Coalition’s initial letter issued in mid-January (2019). In recent Hill visits it was made clear that during the August recess staffs would be working to prepare Appropriations matters, the funding Bills will most likely be some of the first acted on after the August recess.
In the attachments you will find in order the Coalition’s letter first distributed to Senators Cassidy and Kennedy on January 16, 2019, a copy of NOAA’s Federal Advisory Committee’s position paper titled PORTS®: Critical Data for Critical Decisions in U.S. Ports and Harbors and a PORTS® O&M Data Sheet for complete details on the Coalition’s request.
This effort is also being supported by the membership of the American Association of Port Authorities and the National Association of Maritime Organizations – we have been working to make uniform requests and sharing support and information.
Feel free to utilize this information to request the support of your delegation members or to enlighten your contacts, happy to help answer any questions and/or provide any material in a Microsoft Word if that may help with the proper borrowing.
The Big River Coalition is committed to “Advocating for a Mightier Mississippi River” to ensure the future of unimpeded navigation on the Mississippi River Ship Channel (MRSC) as one of the nation’s fundamental natural resources and a true economic powerhouse. The Mississippi River and Tributaries project has an estimated $ 735.7 billion annual impact on the nation’s economy and is responsible for approximately 2.4 million jobs (585,000 jobs on the Lower River – Cairo, IL to the Gulf of Mexico and 1.86 million plus jobs on the Upper River-Lake Itasca, MN to Cairo, IL and including the IL River).
Federal Funding for NOAA’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems Annual Operations and Maintenance Costs
BRC Funding Request for NOAA PORTS Program 11619 Senators12[1].pdf
The Big River Coalition requests increased federal support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS) to include all presently approved sensors by increasing the total annual allocation to $15 million. NOAA indicated the current annual PORTS appropriation is $5 million, the increase of $10 million would fund the annual Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs of the national PORTS program. The PORTS sensors provide invaluable critical data that is utilized by maritime professionals to make critical informed decisions to promote navigational safety.
The Operations and Maintenance costs for the PORTS program has been funded by a variety of different agreements with local sponsors that has historically placed the PORTS sensors in jeopardy of being turned off. There are 33 established NOAA PORTS throughout the country and each has their own method and ability to fund the annual O&M costs. By increasing PORTS funding by $10 million per year NOAA could continue the ongoing operations and maintenance, perform emergency maintenance, and recapitalization responsibilities for all oceanographic sensors of the existing PORTS presently paid for by the partners. This appropriations increase would also afford NOAA the ability to fund and maintain three new PORTS suites at Kings Bay, GA, Coos Bay, OR and Honolulu, HI and to modernize all present and future PORTS. This level of federal funding would also allow NOAA to fund their newly approved Precision Navigation projects on the Lower Mississippi River and New York/New Jersey.
NOAA’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS) sensors are critical to maintain navigational safety on the five deep-draft ports situated on the MRSC comprising the Lower Mississippi River Deep-Draft Ports Complex specifically the ports of: Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, New Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines – along 256 miles of the Mississippi River Ship Channel (Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico). This Ports Complex is a true economic superhighway annually responsible for 7,500 ships transits (or 15,000 in and out) and over 500,000 barge movements transferring over 500 million tons of cargo each year. Over 60% of the nation’s grain exports and 20 % of the nation’s coal exports annually transit the MRSC.
Early on the morning of October 12, 2018, there was an allision between a crane on barge being transported upriver by a tow boat and the Sunshine Bridge over the Mississippi River Ship Channel at Mile 167.4 Above Head of Passes that caused severe damage to the Bridge. This allision caused severe damage to the load- bearing components of the Bridge and had a significant impact on local vehicular traffic. Repairs required the
roadway to be closed and periods of one lane traffic across Louisiana State Highway 70 (LA Hwy 70). The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD) estimated that 25,000 commuters per day had to find alternate routes with significant delays and increased travel distances (up to 50 miles in each direction). LA Hwy 70 is heavily relied upon by commercial truck traffic moving cargoes to and from the numerous facilities in this area of the Mississippi River Ship Channel (MRSC). LDOTD acknowledges that emergency services and school schedules have been impacted and closures continue as the repairs are not expected to be completed until mid-February.
There are six bridges that span over the Mississippi River Ship Channel from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, in descending order the Baton Rouge I-10 Bridge at Mile 229.3 AHP; the Sunshine Bridge; Gramercy Bridge at Mile 145.9 AHP; LA State Highway 310 Bridge (Hale Boggs) at Mile 121.6 AHP; Huey P. Long Bridge at Mile 106.1 AHP and the two bridges of the Crescent City Connection at Mile 95.8 AHP and 95.7 AHP. Only the lowest two bridges, the Huey P. Long and Crescent City Connection have PORTS Air Gap sensors. The increased appropriations would allow the establishment of the Air Gap sensor on the uppermost Bridge that crosses over the MRSC, this Air Gap sensor was recently approved by NOAA after requests from both the New Orleans – Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association and the Big River Coalition. Although, a willing sponsor for the O&M costs has yet to be identified and there remains no movement to activate this Air Gap sensor.
Please consider fully funding NOAA’s programs so that mariners can utilize the real-time data to promote safe navigation decisions, the damage at the Sunshine Bridge has an economic impact in the tens of millions while the national PORTS program can be fully funded at $10 million a year. Please note that I am a member of NOAA’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel and have enclosed an issue paper on the PORTS Program, the following quote is reproduced from this paper:
“Increased use of the Nation’s waterways in the movement of good and people in all major U.S. ports and harbors is becoming more complex as:
- vessels are becoming larger;
- waterway congestion is increasing;
- security arrangements are becoming more stringent;
- climate change is forcing a need of for resiliency planning;
- newly dredged channels are creating new hydraulic and bathymetric challenges;
- restricted waterways require precise data for safe navigation; and data needs to be made available on-shore, aboard ship, and on numerous devices.
CHALLENGES
Established in 1991, PORTS measures and disseminates observations and predictions of water levels, currents, salinity, bridge clearance, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, air, and water temperatures) that mariners need to navigate safely and efficiently.”…
The Big River Coalition is committed to “Advocating for a Mightier Mississippi River” to ensure the future of unimpeded navigation on the Mississippi River Ship Channel (MRSC) as one of the nation’s fundamental natural resources and a true economic powerhouse. The Mississippi River and Tributaries project has an estimated $ 735.7 billion annual impact on the nation’s economy and is responsible for approximately 2.4 million jobs (585,000 jobs on the Lower River – Cairo, IL to the Gulf of Mexico and 1.86 million plus jobs on the Upper River-Lake Itasca, MN to Cairo, IL and including the IL River).
PORTS®: Critical Data for Critical Decisions in U.S. Ports and HarborsISSUE AND STATUS
HSRP-PORTS-Critical-Data-for-Critical-Decisions-28feb2018[4][1].pdf
NOAA should continue to prioritize and support value-added seaport systems that increase the safety of navigation,
such as the Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (PORTS®). Without such systems and the integration of theirdata into practical and reliable products for end users, U.S. seaports will encounter significant impediments to the safe, effective, and efficient transfer of people and goods. In order to operate safely, mariners must have a precise knowledgeof the physical structure of land and water bodies and behavior of the port, including the real-time and predicted condition of the water and the surrounding environment. NOAA provides invaluable services to our nation’s harbors through PORTS. PORTS and the data the system provides serve a multitude of end users, but funding is inadequate to guarantee maintenance and expansion. NOAA should provide consistent, on-going funding for these systems that provide critical data for critical decisions and expand PORTS to other critical areas needed for safety of navigation.
It is essential to the Nation’s well being that our ports and harbors are safe, resilient, and secure. Our nation’s ports and harbors are increasingly vital to our economy. The marine transportation system is the primary system by which goods enter and leave the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, FT920 U.S. Merchandise Trade Selected Highlights, 2015, during 2015, waterborne trade accounted for over 72% of all international trade by tonnage and 44% by value, moving $2.9 trillion of goods. Annually, over 600 commercial vessels are involved in accidents on the nation’s waterways and major seaports. Studies have shown that PORTSreduces the risk to life and property and facilitates the more efficient flow of international and interstate commerce.
Increased use of the Nation’s waterways in the movement and goods and people in all major U.S. ports and harbors isbecoming more complex as:
- vessels are becoming larger;
- waterway congestion is increasing;
- security requirements are becoming more stringent;
- climate change is forcing a need for resiliency planning;
- newly dredged channels are creating new hydraulic and bathymetric challenges;
- restricted waterways require precise data for safe navigation; and
- data needs to be made available on-shore, aboard ship, and on numerous devices.
Challenges
Established in 1991, PORTS measures and disseminates observations and predictions of water levels, currents, salinity, bridge clearance, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, air and water temperatures)
that mariners need to navigate safely and efficiently. PORTS data provides users with the ability to more accurately understand the real-time operating environment, allowing them to make better informed decisions as they navigatethrough port approaches and within the seaports themselves. As of August 2016, 28 PORTS systems servicing 62 seaports have been installed throughout the country providing real-time integrated oceanographic and meteorological data to its users. Notably several studies suggest that these systems can cut incidents of vessel groundings in half. As larger ships and record cargo volumes increasingly stress our nation’s port infrastructures, the mariner’s need for improved and expanded PORTS installations has never been greater.
Additionally, PORTS data has applications well beyond marine commerce. PORTS data is used by a diverse user baseincluding NOAA, USCG, USN, USACE, FEMA, state and municipality emergency managers, first responders, academia,coastal managers, recreational boaters, etc. The data improves weather and oil spill trajectory forecasts and informsdecisions on preparedness, response, restoration, and adaptation to coastal storms, flooding erosion, and sea level riseamong myriad other applications.
While the importance of and value provided by PORTS is widely lauded, the current funding scheme for the system isextremely vulnerable to the varied and complex funding methods. Specifically, the cost-sharing approach is impractical, untenable, and unsustainable as there is not often a readily identifiable and isolated beneficiary. There is certainly a diverse community of system beneficiaries, including the federal government itself, and it is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to determine when and how to share costs fairly and effectively. Congress has recognized these difficultiesand has, in both legislative and appropriations report language, strongly encouraged NOAA to request funding that coversthe full costs of PORTS. In fact, the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 expressly authorizes the NOAAadministrator to “design, install, maintain, and operate real-time hydrographic monitoring systems to enhance navigationsafety and efficiency.”
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEDERAL ACTION
- Ensure reliable federal funding for installation, operation, and maintenance of PORTS.
- Identify users beyond the commercial maritime industry and determine all user needs.
- Identify and prioritize locations where new PORTS should be operated with a goal of having a national system in all significant U.S. ports.
- Review current PORTS installations with local stakeholders to determine current status, and both current andfuture needs, including installation of additional platforms.
- Ensure PORTS continually infuses new technology to address emerging needs and responsibly recapitalizes the observing system.
- Ensure PORTS and model forecasts are fully integrated, leverage local area modeling innovations, and PORTS data is integrated into climate change models.
Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems Annual Operations and Maintenance Costs
NOAA PORTS Operations and Maintenance Data Sheet.pdf
The Request: Fund the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) program to maintain the current PORTS installations and to expand the system. The average annual PORTS appropriation is $5 million, an increase of $10 million would fund the annual O&M costs of the national PORTS program. By increasing PORTS funding to a total of $15 million in FY20 this critical program will be able to continue seamlessly. This appropriations increase would fund all presently approved PORTS sensors, including three new PORTS suites (Kings Bay, GA, Coos Bay, OR and Honolulu, HI) and modernize all present and planned PORTS. This appropriations increase would also allow NOAA to fund their newly approved Precision Navigation projects on the Lower Mississippi River and New York/New Jersey.
The Need: According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources report for Calendar Year 2016 titled, Waterborne Commerce of the United States, the state of Louisiana is the leading tonnage state for waterborne commerce. According to this report, Louisiana is responsible for the movement of 545,103 short tons of cargo and the national total is 2,292,044 short tons. Ports are key to the U.S. economy and huge job creators, nearly 300,000 jobs in Louisiana are directly supported by our ports and waterways.
Mississippi River Ship Channel (MRSC): The Lower Mississippi River PORTS sensors were originally installed after the impact of Hurricane Katrina and based on a safety matrix developed by local navigation representatives, to install air gap sensors on the two southern most bridges across the Mississippi River, two current meters and an electronic river stage meter. The PORTS sensors are critical to navigational safety on the five deep-draft ports situated along the MRSC comprising the Lower Mississippi River Deep-Draft Ports Complex specifically the ports of: Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, New Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines – along 256 miles of the Ship Channel (Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico). This Ports Complex is a true economic superhighway transited by 7,500 oceangoing vessels with over 500,000 barge movements. Over 60% of the nation’s grain exports and 20 % of the nation’s coal exports annually transit the MRSC.
The End Result: The additional $10 million in FY20 funding would allow NOAA to accomplish four major objectives necessary to ensure PORTS remains viable:
- Reduce the maintenance backlog on existing equipment;
- Modernize equipment to a consistent, current platform across the nation;
- Expand and upgrade PORTS services; and
- Resolve inconsistent funding of PORTS operations and maintenance costs.
The Rationale: The O&M costs for the PORTS program has been funded by a variety of different agreements with local sponsors that have historically placed the PORTS sensors in jeopardy of being deactivated. The current
PORTS funding scheme should be modified to instill confidence and longevity to the end users that the sensors will remain available. The complexity of the funding hampers the potential benefits of the system, the PORTS sensors are federally funded and allow NOAA to develop the program, maintain the database and preform quality assurance while expecting private partners (almost always entities engaged in maritime commerce) to fund annualO&M costs.
Congress has recognized these difficulties and, in both legislative and appropriations report language, strongly encouraged NOAA to request funding that covers the full costs of PORTS. Through the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998, NOAA was encouraged to “design, install, maintain, and operate real-time hydrographic monitoring systems to enhance navigation safety and efficiency.” The Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 created NOAA’s Federal Advisory Committee the Hydrographic Services Review Panel (HSRP).
Conclusion: Consistent funding for the PORTS program and increased funding for the Operations and Maintenance costs of the PORTS system must be included in the NOAA federal budget.
The following quote is reproduced from a position paper (attached and clickable below) as issued by the Hydrographic Services Review Panel and titled:
PORTS®: Critical Data for Critical Decisions in U.S. Ports and Harbors
“Increased use of the Nation’s waterways in the movement of good and people in all major U.S. ports and harbors is becoming more complex as:
- vessels are becoming larger;
- waterway congestion is increasing;
- security arrangements are becoming more stringent;
- climate change is forcing a need of for resiliency planning;
- newly dredged channels are creating new hydraulic and bathymetric challenges;
- restricted waterways require precise data for safe navigation; and
- data needs to be made available on-shore, aboard ship, and on numerous devices.”
Please work to support maritime commerce and promote navigational safety by funding the O&M costs for NOAA’s PORTS® program.
