Many papers in the midwest reported on Friday that the NAS recommends
against Army Corps plan for locks and dams.

 The Army Corps of Engineers has not adequately justified the need for a
multi-billion dollar plan to expand locks and dams on the upper
Mississippi River, according to a National Academy of Sciences report
released yesterday.

Here is a press release that you could use as the basis for a letter to
the editor responding to the above story.


Press Release from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
December 1, 2003
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Mark Muller, 612-870-3420, [log in to unmask]
Ben Lilliston, 301-270-4787, [log in to unmask]

Simple Steps Could Improve Mississippi River Barge Traffic, New Report

Corps Should Consider Cheaper Alternatives With Immediate Benefits

Minneapolis - By implementing small-scale, low cost measures, the
efficiency of barge traffic on the Mississippi River could be
significantly improved, according to a new report by the University of
Missouri-St. Louis' Center for Transportation Studies. The Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) commissioned the report to explore
low cost alternatives to improve barge traffic efficiency on the Upper
Mississippi River and Illinois Waterways (UMR-IW).

Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers is considering a number of
alternatives to improve the navigation system on the UMR-IW, including a
controversial $2.1 billion lock expansion project that will take more
than 20 years to complete.

"More immediate, cheaper alternatives to improve Mississippi River
navigation should be utilized before a massive lock expansion project is
considered," said IATP's Environment and Agriculture Program director
Mark Muller. There are several transportation sectors that effectively
use advancements in global positioning systems and communications
technology to reduce costs. The barge industry s reliance on federal
subsidies reduces innovation while also distorting the agricultural
transportation market.

The Corps collects and maintains operational data regarding the locks
along the UMR-IW, and those data show significant waiting times at
certain locks during certain times. There is no coordination with the
arrival of barges at various locks. This first come, first serve system
can create significant back ups.

The report, "Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterways: How to
Reduce Waiting Times of Vessels While Using the Current Infrastructure"
by David Ronen, Ph.D. and Robert Nauss, Ph.D., finds that regardless of
whether the locks are expanded, transportation logistics management
makes sense. The report makes a series of recommendations including:

· Implementing an appointment system where barges would be assigned
appointed times to pass through the locks. This would work in congruence
with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and would enable tows to
reduce fuel costs by adjusting their traveling speed;
· Offering barge operators price incentives (discounts) to use the
system during low demand periods or penalizing (charging a premium
price) operators for using the system during peak periods;
· Re-evaluating the small-scale measures considered by the Corps in
1999, given recent technological advances.

IATP is simultaneously releasing its report, "Technology We Have vs.
Money We Don't: How to Avoid Sinking $2.1 Billion into the Mississippi
River." The report argues that lock expansion could actually increase
transportation costs and that there is little reason to believe barge
traffic will rapidly expand on the UMR-IW system any time soon. The
report uses Corps data to show a wide variance in the time it takes tows
to pass through the locks - with some tow companies consistently fast
and others consistently slow. This indicates that training, experience,
and the use of technology within the barge industry could significantly
improve traffic efficiency on the river.

Both reports can be found at: www.iatp.org/
<http://www.iatp.org/enviroag>enviroag <http://www.iatp.org/enviroag>.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy promotes resilient family
farms, rural communities and ecosystems around the world through
research and education, science and technology, and advocacy.

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