The future of how inland waterways projects will be financed will soon be determined by a small group of senators and congressmen.
They will be meeting this fall in what Congress calls a “conference committee” to iron out differences between two versions of the Water Resources Development Act. Renewed every two years, WRDA is an important law that sets federal policies and priorities for the nation’s water resources, including modernizing the aging and often crumbling lock and dam system along the nation’s inland rivers.
The two pending bills couldn’t be more different, so decisions negotiated by the committee have important consequences.
The Senate WRDA bill is the most generous to the inland system. It includes a provision that would shift the cost-sharing for costly inland construction and modernization projects more to the federal government with a permanent 75% general revenue and 25% Inland Waterways Trust Fund cost-share adjustment. The current cost-share formula is 65%/35%.
The bill also provides 100% federal funding for projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021, which include Kentucky Lock, Three Rivers in Arkansas, and the Elmsworth Dam on the Ohio River near Pittsburgh.
Waterways advocates call this a “major league win” for the inland waterways as the new formula will accelerate project completion and ensure greater efficiency for the future of river navigation construction. The Ohio River’s Montgomery Locks in Pennsylvania, for example, would likely be fully funded by FY28 under the new formula, while Lock and Dam 25 on the Upper Mississippi in Missouri could potentially get all its funds in FY30, seven years earlier than projected under the current formula, according to the Waterways Council, which advocates for inland infrastructure spending.
Overall revenues from the Trust Fund, which is financed by a diesel tax paid by the inland towing and barge industry, would jump from the current $125 million to an estimated $1.4 billion in additional project funding available over a decade under the new formula, WCI said.
The House version offers a starkly different and disappointing outcome for waterways infrastructure. Passed the House on July 22, that bill does not contain any provisions to modernize the inland system despite more than 50 House members requesting it, according to WCI.
Pamela Glass is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for WorkBoat. She reports on the decisions and deliberations of congressional committees and federal agencies that affect the maritime industry, including the Coast Guard, U.S. Maritime Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Prior to coming to WorkBoat, she covered coastal, oceans and maritime industry news for 15 years for newspapers in coastal areas of Massachusetts and Michigan for Ottaway News Service, a division of the Dow Jones Company. She began her newspaper career at the New Bedford (Mass.) Standard-Times. A native of Massachusetts, she is a 1978 graduate of Wesleyan University (Conn.). She currently resides in Potomac, Md.
