For Each Fed Dollar Spent On Corps Mississippi Project, 5 Cents In Return

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 8, 2004 (ENS) - "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to double the size of the lock system on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway will return less than a nickel on every federal dollar invested, according to economic analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Using the Corps' own cost figures, the PEER economic analysis shows that the $2.3 billion project would lose more than $180 million per year for the national economy under current and historic market conditions. PEER also released the latest Corps lock usage data for 2004 that show both barge traffic and lock congestion continuing to decline, accelerating a 13 year long trend.

The Army Corps has been considering the modernization plan since the late 1980s and is keen to build longer locks on the waterway to accommodate barge traffic. Most of the locks on the river system are 600 feet, while most tows today push multiple barges of 1,000 feet. This has caused traffic congestion on the waterway, the Corps says, but its efforts have been mired in controversy.

The agency was forced to abandon its initial plan in 2000 after the Corps economist for the project, Dr. Donald Sweeney, filed a whistleblower disclosure saying top commanders had altered key numbers in an effort to "cook the books" so that the project would appear justified."

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http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=32416