Forces Line Up to Keep Allegheny River Locks Open
Aspinwall Herald
16 February 2011
By Mary Ann Thomas
As the Army Corps of Engineers decides between closing the upper locks
of the Allegheny River to recreational boaters or cutting operating
hours in the lower locks, public officials and boaters vow they will
fight to keep the locks open.
The president's proposed fiscal 2012 budget slashes the Allegheny
River's locks and dams budget by more than 50 percent. The president's
proposal sets operating funds at $4 million for the next fiscal year,
which begins in October.
While popular with boaters and beloved for its emerald beauty, the
Allegheny River doesn't have enough commercial barge traffic to qualify
for much federal support, which is based on moving commodities.
As such, the Allegheny locks, along with 121 other so-called low-use
waterway facilities across the county, are facing a drastic funding cut.
Congress will approve the federal budget, but the sentiment in
Washington this year calls for budget cuts.
At a news conference at Lock and Dam No. 2 near the Highland Park
Bridge on Tuesday, Col. William Graham, the Army Corps' Pittsburgh
District engineer, urged the public to attend meetings in O'Hara on
Feb. 22 and Kittanning on Feb. 24 to voice their concerns and come up
with ideas to keep the locks open.
"The Allegheny River belongs to the people of this region," Graham said.
Corps officials say they want to gauge public interest before making a
final decision in the next month on where to ax operations on the
Allegheny River.
The alternatives being considered by the corps are to cut service from
Lock No. 2 at the Highland Park Bridge in Pittsburgh to Lock No. 4 in
Natrona (Harrison) or close the locks from No. 5 in Schenley near
Freeport to Lock No. 9 in Rimer to recreational traffic.
Commercial boats can continue to make appointments to pass through the
locks.
If Armstrong County Commissioners have their way, Lock No. 5 in
Schenley to Lock No. 9 in Rimer will remain open. They operate on a
limited schedule.
Armstrong County Commissioner Jim Scahill has been through lock funding
crunches before. A longtime boater, Scahill remembers when lock service
from Schenley to Rimer was provided around the clock.
Then in the 1980s, Scahill said that cuts to the upper locks' operating
hours became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"In the 1980s, we still had businesses along the river like Schenley,"
Scahill said, referring to a liquor distillery that hauled product by
barge. "They're gone because of the locks."
Kittanning branded its outdoor recreation with the river, its
amphitheater and riverfront park.
"We have people finally getting back on the river," he said.
Having a closed pool would take away access to the town by boaters who
often make sojourns to Kittanning for concerts and other special events.
"Closing the locks and dams -- will that be the end of it?" Scahill
asked. "No, but it's another nail in the coffin."
Armstrong Commissioner Rich Fink said a number of businesses will lose
out if the recreation dollars don't keep flowing.
Fink helped conduct a recreational study of the Kittanning area and
found that a number of business benefitted from boaters coming to the
region, including gas stations and local restaurants.
"The recreational use is tremendous," Fink said, "and this could really
hurt the communities from Freeport to East Brady to Parker."
Fink and Scahill want to explore a public/private partnership with the
Corps, offering up manpower to operate the locks.
Both men say they will fight to keep the river navigation system open.
"You've got a couple of Irishmen here."
Downriver, boaters and public officials are concerned as well.
"As recreational boaters, it will destroy us if you can't go pool to
pool," said Tom Kish, the mayor of Brackenridge who is a boater and
longtime river user.
"People who come from upriver to spend money, you won't see them," Kish
said, "and it will hurt towns like Brackenridge, Tarentum and Oakmont.
"People from the north go to the Oakmont Yacht Club to just to spend
the weekend there."
James McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh, which
represents the commercial interests of the area rivers, is concerned
about cutting the maintenance.
In addition to the service cuts, the corps is cutting all money for
major maintenance projects on the Allegheny's locks and dams.
"The problem is a whole lot more serious than what is being presented,"
McCarville said.
"If we eliminate maintenance now, it will cost much more in the future
to fix it," he said. "And if there's some failure, there's no guarantee
that the lock and dam will be fixed. And that's even more frightening."
Mary Ann Thomas is a staff writer with The Herald in Aspinwall.