Shooting Pork in the Barrel

By Michael Grunwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , March 2, 2000 ; A17

Two nonprofit organizations from opposite sides of the political
spectrum today plan to release a report blasting 25 Army Corps of
Engineers water projects as financially profligate and environmentally
destructive.

The anti-spending Taxpayers for Common Sense and the pro-environment
National Wildlife Federation joined forces on the report, which
criticizes more than $6 billion worth of river navigation work,
port-deepening initiatives, flood control structures, beach-building
efforts and other projects nationwide.

In recent weeks, the corps has been under investigation for allegedly
rigging a study to justify a billion-dollar expansion of barge locks on
the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, a plan ranked third in the
report's list of unnecessary projects. A billion-dollar plan to divert
the White River for irrigation in Arkansas ranks first, followed by a
$311 million proposal to deepen the Delaware River for tanker traffic up

to the Port of Philadelphia.

The corps, a 200-year-old federal agency best known for building massive

locks, dams and levees along America's rivers, has been trying to recast

itself in a more ecosensitive light. But its longtime critics say the
37,000-employee agency remains addicted to expensive construction
projects regardless of environmental consequences, a charge they
repeated with new vehemence after the recent news of an agencywide
"Project Growth Initiative" to boost the budget.

"The growing environmental consciousness and tight federal budgets of
the past two decades led many to believe the era of large, destructive,
pork-barrel-driven projects was becoming a matter of history," the new
report says. "It is increasingly clear that as budget pressures ease . .

. a resurgence of wasteful and damaging projects is looming on the
horizon."

Corps of Engineers officials declined comment. But at a tense Senate
hearing last week, Assistant Army Secretary Joseph Westphal, the
agency's civilian overseer, and Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard, its top military
officer, argued that their organization should take on more work, citing

a $30 billion backlog of unfinished projects.

"I believe the nation has great needs out there," Westphal said. Ballard

noted that half the locks and dams on the nation's 11,000-mile
navigation system have reached the end of their 50-year design lives, a
frequent complaint of the barge industry and its customers, including
farmers, agribusinesses, petroleum interests and power companies.

But critics point out that much of that navigation system is rarely
used; 90 percent of America's waterway freight floats on just four
waterways. Today's report calls for scaling back navigation on
low-traffic rivers such as the Missouri, where recreation generates 12
times as many economic benefits; the White, where a proposed channel
project threatens two national wildlife refuges; and the Snake, where
pressure is building on the engineers to breach four dams to save
endangered salmon.

Still, the study's authors say the problems run deeper than the
corps--Congress, after all, must approve everything the agency does--and

the individual projects. The dilemma, they say, is an entrenched culture

of water-based pork, an "iron triangle" formed by members of Congress
eager to bring home projects, corps leaders eager to "grow" their
agency, and special interests eager to reap the benefits.

"The corps is out of control; it needs a major overhaul," said Steve
Ellis, director of water resources for Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Now
Congress has to decide whether it wants to continue to be part of the
problem, or if it wants to be part of the solution."

At last week's hearing, several senators expressed grave concerns about
the Corps of Engineers, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) declared that "the
time has come for some member of Congress to commit
political heresy," to oppose a big project in his home district.

But Wyden didn't, and the critics are skeptical that anyone will.
"Unfortunately, the fervor in Congress for reform has given way to the
demand for more and more projects," said David Conrad, the National
Wildlife Federation's water resources expert.

This article can be found on the web at:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/A57567-2000Mar1.html

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