Waterways Council Fighting New User Fee

Waterways operators and shippers want Congress to overhaul the Obama administration's budget request for waterways by adding more funding and eliminating a proposed new lockage fee.

"We are surprised and disappointed that the Corps of Engineers and the Obama administration would support a tax that will discourage the use of barge transportation, the most energy-efficient, environmentally-sound way to move bulk commodities," said Cornel J. Martin, president and CEO of the Waterways Council, a Washington-based association of operators and shippers.

"This lockage fee is an ill-conceived proposal that should be rejected by this Congress just as it was by the last Congress," he said.

The administration is proposing $5.125 billion in spending by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work on the nation's inland waterway system, the largest amount the executive branch has ever proposed.

But the waterways group says that is inadequate to the system's needs, and $277 million less than Congress ended up approving for the 2009 budget.

Council officials said the Army Corps of Engineers has identified $12 billion in projects it could begin to improve infrastructure on the nation's waterways.

WCI supports a government-industry initiative, now underway, to develop an improved project-delivery system and long-term capital plan for America's inland waterways infrastructure.

Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com.