Mighty Mississippi: When shipping and environment clash

A proposal to spend $2.4 billion on building 1,200-foot locks at seven locations between Rock Island, Ill., and St. Louis has environmentalists and shippers at odds.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project is needed, shippers say, because barge traffic has to wait too long to get through the present 600-foot locks.

The problem is volume and a funnel effect.

Tows push groups of 15 barges, three wide and five long, on the Mississippi River above St. Louis. Below it, to the Gulf of Mexico, they push twice as many barges because the river flows wider and deeper.

That means the normal cluster of barges has to be broken into two when traveling from or to points above St. Louis. And that can result in delays that last days when several barges are waiting to get through a single lock.

Corps of Engineers experts began a study in 1991 to determine if a system of larger locks would improve commercial navigation. But in 2000, everything came to a halt when it was determined barge traffic projections had been deliberately hyped to justify the project. Corps of Engineers data showed barge traffic going up when it was actually going down.

Environmental and taxpayer groups quickly teamed up to stop the project in its tracks, causing the Corps of Engineers to go back and take a look at the environmental impact of the lock improvements.

John Anfinson, a former Corps official who is now a National Park Service historian and author of a history book on the Upper Mississippi, said this was a “profound change in philosophy. This river, since the 1700s, has always been managed, No. 1, for navigation” and not for the environment.

In addition to the lock system, the Corps of Engineers proposed spending $5.3 billion for ecosystem restoration along the Upper Mississippi. It included plans to improve fish migration through the lock system, restore islands that had been washed away by wind and rising waters behind the locks, reconnect backwaters and stop erosion.

That prompted groups such as the Audubon Upper Mississippi River Campaign to embrace the project, citing the importance of both commercial navigation and improving the habitat for fish, birds and other animals that depend on the Mississippi.

But some environmental groups see the ecosystem funding, which would be dispersed gradually after the new locks are in place, as a bribe, Anfinson said.

"Historically, the environmental aspect of the river has gotten short shrift," he said. "What I say in my book is we're in a time of testing."

The next step in the project is an economic re-evaluation report, said Jeff DeZellar, an official with the Corps of Engineers. It will deal with topics ranging from Chinese grain imports to alternative models of transportation.

But, he added, if the money for the longer locks isn’t approved by Congress this session, the study process will have to start over again, further delaying improvements on the river for shippers.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds for river traffic," said DeZellar.