The US Senate is set to vote this week on an US$11.7 billion waterways bill that would fund construction of new mammoth locks on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to speed barge traffic for grain, petroleum, cement and other bulk materials. Aides to key sponsors of the legislation said an agreement had been reached to limit amendments to keep debate on the bill from eating up too much time as the Senate races to finish business before an August recess.

The Senate is scheduled to take up the Water Resources Development Act on Tuesday after it finishes debate on stem-cell research. The omnibus bill would authorize hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects, including restoration work on the Florida Everglades and the hurricane-devastated Louisiana coastline.

Among the more controversial provisions are US$1.8 billion for seven new, 1,200-foot-long locks on the upper Mississippi and lower Illinois rivers, along with US$1.6 billion in environmental restoration associated with these projects. It would be the largest US inland waterway project ever. Backers say the existing 600-foot-locks are outmoded and cause river traffic jams, while the new and larger locks will encourage more exports and reduce the cost of shipping grain, petroleum, chemicals, cement and other bulk goods.

The National Corn Growers Association says more than 1 billion bushels of grain, or 60 percent of US grain exports, are floated on the Mississippi River to export terminals each year. Environmentalists and fiscal hawks say there is not enough barge traffic to justify the new locks and question their impact on the river ecosystem.

Some 80 US senators have signed a letter supporting the bill. Last year, the US House of Representatives passed a similar waterways bill by a vote of 406-14. An aide to Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had scheduled 13 hours of floor debate time for the bill and nine amendments, with a vote likely on Wednesday or Thursday. The most controversial of these is a proposal by Arizona Sen. John McCain and Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold to reform oversight of the Army Corps of Engineers in the wake of levee breaks that flooded New Orleans last year.

The amendment would require an independent review for projects costing more than US$40 million and would require a cabinet-level committee to determine the highest priorities among the corps US$58 billion backlog of construction projects.
(Planet Ark, 18/07/2006)