--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 23:35:10 EST
> Subject: Scientists say Corps wasting money on Miss
> lock expansion
> To: [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
> (Stephanie Osborn),
>         [log in to unmask] (Harry W. Read),
> [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask],
>         [log in to unmask] (Neil Heinen),
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Date: Feb. 28, 2001
> Contacts: Bill Kearney, Media Relations Associate
> David Schneier, Media Relations Specialist
> (202) 334-2138; e-mail <[log in to unmask]>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> Corps of Engineers Should Consider Alternatives to
> Extending Locks
> On Upper Mississippi-Illinois Waterway System
>
> WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
> should explore other options
> for managing barge traffic before it considers
> extending the length of
> several locks on the Upper Mississippi
> River-Illinois Waterway system, says a
> new report from the National Academies' National
> Research Council. Lock
> extensions could cost about $1 billion, would
> disrupt waterway traffic during
> years of construction, and may damage the
> surrounding environment. Instead,
> the report urges that other, nonstructural
> alternatives be considered
> carefully before moving forward.
>
> The report examines a feasibility study that the
> Corps began in 1989 to
> determine the economic viability and environmental
> implications of extending
> locks. To date, the study has cost more than $50
> million. When controversies
> arose early in 2000 over the economic analyses being
> used by the Corps, the
> U.S. Army asked the National Academies to convene an
> expert committee to
> review the study. The committee's findings and
> recommendations are based on
> draft documents prepared as part of the feasibility
> study. The Corps
> announced in September that its final report would
> not be ready in the
> immediate future.
>
> "Although the Corps has made important improvements
> in its analysis, it
> apparently considered lock extensions as the only
> means to reduce congestion,
> ignoring a range of less expensive options that
> wouldn't require rebuilding
> locks and dams," said committee chair Lester Lave,
> the Harry B. and James H.
> Higgins Professor of Economics, and University
> Professor, Carnegie Mellon
> University, Pittsburgh. "We're recommending not
> going down that track until
> nonstructural alternatives have been examined
> closely. We hope our advice
> will help the Corps strengthen and improve its
> analysis of a difficult
> problem as it works to complete the feasibility
> study."
>
> By nonstructural alternatives, the committee is
> referring to relatively
> inexpensive options such as improved scheduling of
> traffic passing through
> the locks and better equipment for hooking barges
> together faster. One way of
> improving scheduling would be to issue permits to
> pass through locks at
> specified times, with the added flexibility of
> allowing the permits to be
> traded among towboat captains.
>
>
From:http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/(ByDocID)/552EC0A27B3CFA208525
>
> 6A0100721B7B?OpenDocument
>
>
>
>
> Dane County, WI Supervisor Brett Hulsey
> Protecting our families, our environment, and our
> future.
>
> 110 Merrill Crest, Madison, WI  53705
>
> Home) 608-238-6070
> Work) 608-257-4994
> Cell) 608-334-4994
> Fax) 608-257-3513
> Email) [log in to unmask]
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]