Sorry for the cross postings

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
protects employees who protect the environment.  It is a
private, nonprofit organization that provides a uniquely valuable
service to government employees and contractors charged with
safeguarding the nation's natural resources. Rather than work
on environmental issues from the outside, PEER works with
and on behalf of employees to effect fundamental change in the
way their resource agencies conduct the public's business.

Washington, DC —
The US Army  Corps of Engineers has decided to completely
abandon reliable traffic forecasting and economic models in
order to “complete” its controversial $60 million study of the
need to build a system of expanded locks on the
Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway in a “timely manner,”
according  to agency documents released today by Public
Employees for Environmental  Responsibility (PEER).

In early 2000, the Corps’ own economist responsible
for the economics of the study, Dr. Donald Sweeney, disclosed
that senior Corps commanders had cooked the books on this
study in an  attempt  to obtain construction authorization in
support of the Corps “Program  Growth Initiative.”In what
it bills as “important study decision points” in its now 11
year-old effort to justify a $1.5 billion  investment in new,
bigger locks, the Corps is -

* Giving up all hope of producing reasonable forecasts of
future barge traffic on the rivers. Instead, it will assign equal
probabilities to all of its traffic planning scenarios. These scenarios,

ranging from spiraling traffic increases to no growth, are from the
same  consultant who has twice previously failed to produce
usable grain  forecasts. Meanwhile, the latest Corps figures
confirm a decade-long decline in barge traffic on  these rivers.

*Admitting that its 34-year old economic model (the Tow
Cost Model) is inadequate and fails to accurately measure potential
navigation benefits because, among other things, it cannot accurately
gauge users’ willingness to pay or account for any other grain
transportation option than direct export through Gulf ports. The
Tow Cost Model has been condemned by both the National
Academy of Sciences and, more recently,by the President’s
Office of Management & Budget in its FY 04 budget
presentation earlier this month and

*  Embracing the same numbers Dr. Sweeney exposed as
improper  as the means to answer criticisms of the Tow Cost
Model.

“These new memos demonstrate that the Corps is at it
again, only this time they are cooking the books in plain sight,”
commented PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose
organization has  represented Dr. Sweeney.“Since Dr. Sweeney’s
disclosure the Corps has spent another $20 million on this study
and even the Corps concedes that they still don’t have it right.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]