The Big River Coalition issued letters (today) to the entire Louisiana Congressional Delegation requesting assistance to secure supplemental funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore the Mississippi River Ship Channel.
A copy of the letter issued jointly to Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy is attached for your reference.
Members are encouraged to issue similar letters and to support the efforts to secure supplemental funding to restore and maintain the authorized dimensions on the Mississippi River Ship Channel.
The Mississippi River Ship Channel has shoaled in due to an extended period of high river stages that have carried down unmanageable amounts of sediment that are choking off Southwest Pass. The federally constructed channel dimensions in this reach of the Ship Channel are 45 feet deep and 750 feet wide, although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) acknowledges that several areas of the channel are now reduced to 375 feet wide or half channel width. The most deficient reach of the Ship Channel remains at Cubits Gap, just above Pilottown, the channel here has been reduced to 200 feet and is the location of two recent vessel groundings. Today’s reading on the Carrollton Gauge (New Orleans) is approximately 14.9 feet and a crest of 15.5 feet is expected on January 21, 2019. The USACE has acknowledged the need for additional dredges and indicated it will not have sufficient funding to maintain Southwest Pass, the Crossings between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, or be able to dredge at all in the New Orleans Harbor.
The BRC estimates the USACE will need $55 million to restore and maintain fully authorized channel dimensions throughout Fiscal Year 2019.
Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance.
Best Regards,
Sean
Janaury 2019 Emergency Supplemental Funding Requests 11519 Senators .pdf
Re: January 2019 Mississippi River Ship Channel Emergency Supplemental Funding Requests
Dear Congressman Scalise,
The Mississippi River Ship Channel has shoaled in due to an extended period of high river stages that have carried down unmanageable amounts of sediment that are choking off Southwest Pass. The federally constructed channel dimensions in this reach of the Ship Channel are 45 feet deep and 750 feet wide, although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) acknowledges that several areas of the channel are now reduced to 375 feet wide or half channel width. The most deficient reach of the Ship Channel remains at Cubits Gap, just above Pilottown, the channel here has been reduced to 200 feet and is the location of two recent vessel groundings. Today’s reading on the Carrollton Gauge (New Orleans) is approximately 14.9 feet and a crest of 15.5 feet is expected on January 21, 2019. The USACE has acknowledged the need for additional dredges and indicated it will not have sufficient funding to maintain Southwest Pass, the Crossings between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, or be able to dredge at all in the New Orleans Harbor. The USACE will need $55 million to restore fully authorized channel dimensions.
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).
The Coalition’s membership depends on the efforts of the USACE and the federal investments made to build and maintain navigation structures and navigable channels across the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MRT). The USACE needs adequate funding to maintain the Ship Channel for access to the five deep-draft ports comprising the Lower Mississippi River Deep-Draft Ports Complex the ports of Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, New Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines – along 256 miles of the Mississippi River Ship Channel. 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 in excess of 500 million tons of cargo each year.
The Coalition requests your assistance in securing the additional $55 million in funding to maintain and restore authorized channel dimensions of the Mississippi River Ship Channel via an Emergency Supplemental Request.
This level of funding would allow the USACE to:
- Issue additional dredge contracts to restore the Mississippi River Ship Channel in the area of Southwest Pass;
- Extend the contracts for the three dustpan dredges to restore channel dimensions on the Crossings between Baton Rouge and New Orleans; and
- Dredge the New Orleans Harbor.
This level of funding dedicated to dredge the Mississippi River Ship Channel would ensure that federally
authorized channel dimensions can be restored and maintained after the prolonged period of high water that have led to increased shoaling. There is presently a need for additional dredges in Southwest Pass, the Corps has reported up to 20 feet of shoaling on several of the Crossings that will have to be removed when the water levels recede, and there is presently not enough funding to dredge in the New Orleans Harbor.
The Big River Coalition (BRC) was created in Fiscal Year 2011 in response to the announcement by the Commander of the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Mississippi Valley Division that channel maintenance on the Mississippi River Ship Channel, Gulf to Baton Rouge (Louisiana) would be limited by the dedicated funding (Operations and Maintenance [O&M] budget). Prior to this position change the Mississippi River Ship Channel received preferential treatment and often received additional funding from other USACE projects. After the 1989 grounding of the M/V MARSHAL KONYEV (Pilottown) that virtually closed the Ship Channel to all traffic, the USACE’s Headquarters announced in a position statement that it would maintain the nation’s most critical navigation channel. The BRC originally focused on obtaining additional funding to supplement the shortfall in the Corps’ O&M budget, to strive to establish a legislative firewall around the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and to represent members of the Mississippi River navigation industry in matters related to coastal restoration. As our membership grew and continued to make effective progress on these initiatives, members supported the Coalition’s commitment to actively advocate for the deepening of the Mississippi River Ship Channel Gulf to Baton Rouge to 50 feet.
