Posted on August 25, 2016
By Bob Lenox, thenews star
A lack of funds flowing for the Ouachita-Black Navigation Project poses a challenge to maintaining operations along the 338 miles of river that runs from Arkansas into Louisiana.
“This waterway has a mighty hill to climb, it is an older waterway, but it is still viable,” Tommy Hengst, Navigation Branch Chief with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told members of the Ouachita Valley River Association Tuesday.
A loss of commercial shipping over the past six years has translated to less tonnage being sent down the river. By having less than one million tons being shipped on the waterway in 2015, Ouachita-Black was categorized as “low use”. The issue has resulted in fewer federal dollars for the navigation project.
ORVA Executive Director Bill Hobgood pointed to the number of shippers from 2010 to 2015 dropping from 17 to 5. He believes the drop has been brought on by operational changes resulting from an Inland Marine Transportation Study by the Corps.
The IMTS study used lockage criteria to determine how many hours those locks and dams would remain open. Hengst shared how the lock and dam operations had adjusted since the implementation of the IMTS in 2012.
Four sites went from 24/7 to reduced hours. Two lower locks in Columbia and Jonesville were later restored to 24/7 status, while the Felsenthal and Hatcher locks operate 10 hours a day, five days a week.
Hobgood said reduction has hurt the waterway project. “In 2015 to 2016, we lost five of our major shippers in that year’s span. Primarily because, we think, of IMTS,” he said.
Another concern voiced by Hengst was the 7 million gallons of water supplied daily. Two of the biggest water users of the waterway are the cities of Camden, Ark. and Monroe.
Hobgood told ORVA members water could become a larger issue if federal support continues to slide that would put the waterway in “caretaker” status. In that scenario, the Corps would open all the gates on the four locks and dams of the Ouachita and go back to what is called “regular run of the river conditions.”
During the dry season of the year (July-November), there would be no navigation. There could be little or no pool of water in some places along the system.
Hengst said the Corps is hopeful to receive an additional $2 million for dredging of the navigation project. $1.2 million is budgeted, but Hengst said the additional dollars are needed. He said contract dollars from FY2016 have been used to to dredge the Lake Providence port.
“We should be able to address the needs of the harbor for this shipping season,” Hengst said. A problem with the area is that sand deposits occur in the harbor channel at Lake Providence have to be dredged. Hengst said that $1.2 to $1.3 million is imperative every year to maintain the harbor or it could be shut down.
Annual needs for the navigation project are just over $10.5 million. In FY2015, $11.4 met operating costs, however $8 million was allocated in FY16. The president’s budget for FY17 stands at $8.4 million.
Hobgood and other ORVA members travel to Washington in mid-September to lobby their congressional delegation for funding of the project. The executive director has urged businesses and municipalities to join in helping sustain the waterway’s operation.
“We have got to get this project where it’s producing to the capability for which it was designed,” Hobgood said.
Source: thenews star
