Winona Daily News

The Army Corps of Engineers' Chief of Engineers Report on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway navigation plan demonstrates that nothing can sway the Army Corps of Engineers.

In the 12-year process undertaken to study navigation on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, the Army Corps of Engineers has never altered its course. It originally pursued navigation expansion, and as of the Dec. 15 final Chief's Report, the Corps remained steadfast in that pursuit.

The plan the Corps has sent to the Secretary of the Army for review and submission to Congress proposes $2.6 billion for navigation expansion. Navigation components include $1.79 billion for seven new locks and $235 million for implementation of non-structural and small-scale structural navigation measures.

The only change in the 12-year history of the Corps' process was tacking on a request to congressional appropriators to find

$5.7 billion in additional money for ecosystem restoration.

Still, the Corps' core objective withstood a dozen years of continuous assault from facts. It is a remarkable achievement.

Perhaps the best-known battle involved the Army inspector general's finding that confirmed the February 2000 disclosure from an Army Corps economist that the Corps had deceptively and intentionally manipulated data in an attempt to justify new lock construction. The Army IG also found an institutional bias that favored the construction of large water projects, and found that Corps staff itself had little confidence in the quality of Corps analysis.

But rather than derailing the project, the 2000 skirmish only established a pattern for contradiction within the Corps.

In the spring of 2004, Corps spokespeople said lock expansion was needed because the lock system was "crumbling" and merely "limping along." At the very same time, a feasibility study on lock expansion published by the Corps read: "The study concluded that the life of existing locks and dams and their components can be extended with normal periodic rehabilitation for another 50 years and match the design life of any new construction being considered," and, as further summarized in that same report, "In other words, rehabilitation of the (lock and dam) system will be a continuous process conducted on a project-by-project basis under the present funding method and policies."

Of course, the ability to ignore contradiction and refutation coming from within the agency apparently made ignoring facts presented from sources outside the Corps that much easier.

Three successive reports from National Academy of Sciences panels found no justification for the Corps' constant assertion that new locks are necessary. The first was in 2001, another in December 2003, and the most recent came in October of this year.

In evaluating the expansion plan now in the Chief's Report, that October 2004 analysis from the National Research Council stated that the Corps' plan "contains flaws serious enough to limit its credibility and value within the policy making process."

Responding to the NRC evaluation, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, the Army's Chief of Engineers, observed, "We recognize the need to improve our evaluations of economic and ecosystem restoration matters." While the Corps regional spokesman in Rock Island added, "We're not taking the report lightly, but it's not going to stop us from making our recommendation."

Clearly, nothing has.

Unfortunately, where facts oppose new lock construction, facts support the need for ecosystem restoration on the Upper Mississippi River. As the Corps correctly stated in its study of navigation expansion, this ecosystem is "significantly altered, is currently degraded, and is expected to get worse."

So with the presentation of the Chief's report to Congress, it will be up to our elected representatives to face the facts the Corps has ignored for 12 years.

The Mississippi River corridor contains an ecosystem home to 260 fish species, more than 300 varieties of birds, and serves as the migratory path to 40 percent of North America's waterfowl. More than 12 million people annually recreate on and along the Upper Mississippi River, spending $1.2 billion and supporting 18,000 jobs. More people use the Upper Mississippi than visit Yellowstone National Park. Barge traffic has remained static on the river for over two decades, with real declines in recent years. And USDA just reported that U.S. agricultural imports have now increased to the point of officially equaling our exports.

The wrong response to declining habitat and declining barge traffic is to expand locks and increase eco-system degradation. Twelve years should have been enough time to figure that out.

Brad Redlin is the Agriculture and Mississippi River Coordinator for the Izaak Walton League of America, located in St. Paul. He can be reached at bredlin@iwla.org or (651) 649-1446.
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