Sorry for the cross postings. I hope I am the only one ( on the listservs I am using) besides Mark that got both of these editorials.

ST.LOUIS POST DISPATCH

BUREAUCRACY Corps of Enron-eers

Published: Friday, Dec. 19 2003

LONG BEFORE THE NAME of a certain East Texas energy company became synonymous  with "imprecise" financial statements, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was slaving over a hot stove to justify its pet projects. Sadly, that tradition lives on.

The corps' Enronesque qualities - past and present - were prominently displayed on two fronts last week. In Jefferson City, where environmental groups are challenging the $85 million St. John's Bayou flood control project, an economist testified that the corps had somewhat overstated the plan's agricultural benefits. The corps estimated them at $71 million. The true benefit would be $21.4 million, economist Tom Stinson testified.

It simply doesn't make sense to spend that much money to get that little benefit, Mr. Stinson said, in what must surely be a shocking revelation to the free-spending corps. Earlier, a hydrologist testified that in justifying the project, the corps made serious errors calculating the amount of forest needed to make up for crucial wetlands that would be lost.

In Washington, meanwhile, the National Academy of Sciences released yet another critical report - the second in two years - on the corps' feasibility study of a massive $2.3 billion lock reconstruction plan for the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. It found that crucial factors needed to accurately determine the benefits were based on inaccurate models and questionable
assumptions.

For example, the corps predicts increasing grain exports, yet they have  remained stable for 20 years. The corps based the need for expanding river locks on increasing congestion. But it failed to evaluate solutions like imposing barge fees or establishing a scheduling system. And the corps
used two unreliable mathematical models for forecasting future barge traffic,even though it agreed not to use one of them and to make revisions to the other when a similar report came out last year.

If all of this sounds distressingly familiar, it should. Former corps economist Donald Sweeney came forward in 2000 to allege that agency's data was skewed deliberately in order to justify the massive Mississippi River lock expansion. A Pentagon investigation later concluded that the problem went far  beyond that one proposal. Eventually, 150 corps projects were suspended
while their costs and benefits were reassessed.

But even a requirement that large projects be reviewed by outsiders hasn't stopped the corps from operating at a full boil. That's due in large part to the legion of influential corps supporters like Missouri Republican Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond who have fought off calls for reforming the corps.

Scientists have a pithy description for analyses based on inaccurate data: "Garbage in, garbage out." For the billions spent on such projects,taxpayers have a right to expect - and Congress has an obligation to demand - that the corps cook up something better.




DES MOINES REGISTER

Editorial: First, see to the river
Larger locks on the Mississippi aren't needed yet - but environmental
restoration is.
By Register Editorial Board
12/17/2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The big debate on the Upper Mississippi River has been about one big
question - whether to enlarge the navigation locks.

Well, forget about that, at least for now. Let's refocus the debate on
something more fundamental - the long-term health of the river and its
adjacent communities.

Let's mitigate damage and even enhance the environment of the Upper
Mississippi before enlarging the lock-and-dam system that is partly
responsible for degrading it.


Those thoughts are prompted by the latest report from committees of the
National Academy of Sciences that are advising the Army Corps of Engineers
on proposals to enlarge the locks. The report said the corps should first
try to make traffic flow more efficient through the existing locks before
even considering the merits of expansion.


The grain and barge industries have been lobbying for enlargement of the
locks, arguing that more efficient shipment is needed to keep the United
States competitive in grain exports.


Locks and dams built in the 1930s have changed the river to a stair-step
series of reservoirs to maintain a 9-foot-deep channel for barges. Changing
the river's natural flow also messed up a lot of wetlands and wildlife
habitat.


The barges could save a few hours each way if they could get through the
locks and dams in one operation. But the chain of barges in a typical tow is
1,200 feet long and the locks are only 600 feet, meaning it takes two
operations to move the entire chain through a lock.


Barges carry 17 percent of Iowa's corn crop down river, all but a tiny
fraction of it intended for export from New Orleans. But the export market
is fading, according to Phillip Baumel, retired Iowa State University
economist, who has tracked the industry for years. "Exports have been
dropping like a rock for three years," he said.


Further, the time loss resulting from moving 1,200 feet of barges through
600-foot locks could be largely eliminated by better timing of the barge
movement on the river. They get slowed down when they all show up at the
dams at once. The National Academy of Sciences committees recommended trying
various management practices to ease the congestion without enlarging the
locks.


The corps recently proposed spending $10.7 billion on the Upper Mississippi.
Of that, $8.4 billion would go to undo some of the damage to the ecosystem,
and $2.3 billion would be to facilitate barge traffic. An earlier $1.5
billion plan would have enlarged five locks and built two more; the new plan
would enlarge five and build seven more.


As the sciences academy committees said, it's too soon to even talk about
lock enlargement. But it's not too soon - it's long overdue - to begin
mitigation of environmental damage. Not only is it the right thing to do,
enhancing the environment - and hence the recreation, tourism and quality of
life on and near the river - would probably do more for economic growth than
enlarging the locks.


Iowa and other Upper Mississippi states should join in a major effort to
secure the $8.4 billion the corps recommended for environmental work - and a
lot more.

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