Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask] Subject: AP on Bargegate Amid charges, Corps says further review is in order By LIBBY QUAID The Associated Press 03/20/00 7:41 PM Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) -- Army Corps of Engineers officials say further study is needed before determining whether there is any validity to charges the agency doctored data to defend $1 billion in dam construction on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, according to an in-house review released Monday. But the study suggested re-examining barge traffic to see whether the construction needs to be done immediately or can be delayed. The internal examination is among several investigations into whether the agency ordered changes in economic analysis of the need for expanding the 60-year-old lock-and-dam system from Minneapolis to Cairo, Ill. Donald Sweeney, the Corps economist who led the seven-year, $54 million study, filed a sworn affidavit last month accusing top Corps officials of rigging the data. Sweeney maintains he was reassigned in 1998 after his team concluded the costs of large-scale improvements would far outweigh any benefit. The barge industry and grain shippers want swifter passage, while environmentalists argue that navigation is killing the rivers and their ecosystems. The Corps study said in general the study followed agency guidelines but concluded "additional information and explanation is required." The memorandum, signed by Major Gen. Hans Van Winkle, the Corps' deputy commander for civil works, recommended broadening the review to include navigation industry and public-sector interests, as well as other Corps districts. The memo also suggested re-visiting earlier projections of growth in barge traffic and looking more closely at the impact of lengthening the locks on recreational boating and on fish and habitat. Corps spokeseman Homer Perkinds said the four pages of recommendations will be followed. "The report states what needs to be done, and I think we'll let it stand on its own," he said. Charges by Sweeney, accompanied by reams of supporting documents, prompted the federal Office of Special Counsel to conclude the Corps probably violated the law and to order a full investigation. Army Secretary Louis Caldera announced last month that the National Academy of Sciences, a congressionally chartered private group, would review the Corps' study. Environmental groups want spending on the project halted until the investigations are settled. Tim Searchinger, an attorney with Environmental Defense, a pro-environment group, said the Corps' report raises many of the same issues cited by Sweeney and opponents of the expansion. "It seems like a compromise between the chefs and the cleanup team," Searchinger said. "It raises good questions and bad questions, but we think the real point is that it's not appropriate for the same people who cooked the books to be doing the new work." The Corps had planned to issue draft plans for improving the system of 43 locks and 37 dams as early as July, but the investigations could delay that. Four alternatives, from $190 million to $1 billion, are on the table. The most recent analysis leans toward lengthening five Mississippi River locks, along with other, smaller improvements. The most costly also would double the capacity of two Illinois River locks. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]