Allegheny River Towns Fight to Save Locks
Aspinwall Herald
20 March 2011
By Mary Ann Thomas
Barges of scrap metal, coal and petroleum products predictably lumber
along the Allegheny River. Towns, water companies and industries draw
524 million gallons daily from that river.
And in the summer, several thousand pleasure boats and personal
watercraft zip through its waters, with some passing through its locks
to the more rural and wooded pools in the upper reaches of the
Allegheny in Armstrong County.
All benefit from the river, but only the commercial barge traffic has
paid directly -- via a marine diesel fuel tax -- for upkeep of the
Allegheny's locks and dams, which were installed in the 1920s and 1930s
to turn erratic pockets of deep and shallow water into reliable pools
of slack water.
Therein lies one of the problems with paying for the $8 million annual
price tag just to operate the locks on the Allegheny.
When Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to build those
locks and dams, it was to meet the needs of businesses to ship
commodities, not to help municipalities or industries draw water or
sewage authorities to release wastewater or boaters to enjoy a little
water skiing.
President Obama's proposed 2012 fiscal budget slashes the corps'
Allegheny budget by 50 percent. At least two locks, No. 8, just north
of Kittanning, and No. 9 in Rimer, will likely close to recreational
boaters and be put in "caretaker status."
Commercial vessels will be able to pass through all locks by
appointment.
The corps will decide which locks will see cuts in operating hours on
March 31.
But no matter where the ax falls, it's another lean budget and another
lean year. Maintenance will be deferred on the aging locks' structures,
which are in poor condition, according to Dave Sneberger, chief of the
corps' locks and dams branch, Pittsburgh District.
At two public meetings last month, boaters told the corps they are
willing to pay a fee and do whatever it takes to keep the all the locks
open.
With five locks in Armstrong County, the county commissioners there are
rounding up boaters, businesses and state and federal lawmakers to
assemble a public/private partnership to help keep the locks open in
the upper pools.
They are looking for any new source of revenue to keep their county's
waterways open.
Budgets running dry
The money hasn't run out just because of tight economic times.
The corps has been threatening to close some of the Allegheny's locks
for decades. It cut operating hours at Locks 5 through 9 in the 1980s
as the volume of commercial boat traffic tumbled.
Federal funding for operating the locks and dams is based on commercial
tonnage floated down the river.
The Allegheny ranks low in priority. For example, 10 times more cargo
passes through the Emsworth lock on the Ohio River each year than does
the entire Allegheny lock system, according to Col. William Graham, the
Coprs' Pittsburgh District engineer.
So the question is: Where to get more money, and who else can pay?
"I don't think anybody can be dragged kicking and screaming to make a
contribution unless it is in their best interest to do so," said James
McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh.
"I think people have got to understand what is at risk, and they have
to make that calculation of what would be the catastrophic loss if they
would lose the pools. And, is it worth contributing to keep them open?"
For example, the water companies and authorities that draw from the
river and its aquifers aren't bound to the fate of the locks. And the
fixed dams on the Allegheny are for navigation, not to control water
flow or flooding. That's controlled by reservoirs upstream.
But they benefit from the pools of water and are in no danger,
presently, of losing them. So why would they pay for them?
"Municipal water customers of systems that draw from the Ohio River
Basin have the benefit of using a source that the Army Corps of
Engineer's calls the 'most reliable water system in the country,'" said
Don Amadee of the Municipal Authority of Buffalo Township.
"Floods and droughts and pollution still occur, obviously, but our
water quality and availability are rarely a concern," Amadee said. "Not
every system has that luxury. I don't want my customers to have to
start paying for the privilege of using the river.
But, if this comes to pass and they start to define who the river users
are, we would certainly qualify."
Businesses continue to use the river for water intakes, water cooling
and discharges. But they don't see a danger in the pool of water going
away, said Mark Devinney, vice president of Freeport Terminals in
Freeport. His company ships commodities down the river such as sand,
scrap, fertilizer, grain and petroleum-based products as far as New
Orleans and Texas.
"In the present economic climate, nobody would be comfortable with
additional taxes and user fees, especially municipalities," Devinney
said. "They're hard pressed.
"The pools are there, and they don't have a dog in that particular
fight, directly," Devinney added.
McCarville disagrees, at least in terms of the long run.
The Allegheny River has weathered lean budgets for years, accumulating
a backlog of almost $49 million in critical maintenance, according to
Dan Jones, spokesman of the Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh
District. And the proposed federal budget for the 2012 fiscal year pays
nothing into maintenance for the aging navigation system.
Just last year, the corps had to shut down a portion of Lock 2 at
Highland Park when a section of one of the concrete lock walls crumbled
into the river.
As the navigation system is starved for repairs, McCarville fears that
the state of decay will eventually render the structures unreliable for
use for generations to come.
"To put something in caretaker status allows for further
deterioration," said McCarville.
"We're looking at saving short-term operations and maintenance costs
and not preserving the valuable capital asset that might play a much
greater role in the future."
And the corps should modernize the locks, he said.
"It's like they have to pay more to fix that '57 Chevy instead of it
selling it off and buying something a little more modern."
The dams are in good shape, according to Sneberger. "At this time,
maintenance of the pools on the Allegheny is not an immediate concern,"
he said. "But 10 years from now, it might be."
The immediate concern is the lack of maintenance of the lock
structures, Sneberger said. "If we have a major breakdown," he said,
"we won't be able to use the lock until it's fixed."
Something old, something new
Since federal funding is based on commercial traffic, some observers
want to increase the commercial traffic. Armstrong County Commissioner
Jim Scahill and state Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Ford City, said they need to
spur more commerce on the river so it gets more federal funding.
They are looking to more dredging operations, which have trickled down
to almost nothing because of environmental and other regulations,
according to Scahill and Pyle.
"We've got to re-establish commercial traffic," Pyle said. "I'm not
willing to go after the municipalities."
Pyle wants to help the dredging industry steer through some of the
regulations and dredge the sand and gravel and move it again through
Armstrong County's upper pools.
And there could be new river commerce with the Marcellus shale natural
gas boom, they say.
Businesses have been inquiring about transporting Marcellus fracking
water via local rivers. Devinney already provides water transport of
fracking sand for the industry.
"Our area stands poised to explode with Marcellus shale well
development," Pyle said. "We need to have the ability to move sand and
chemicals along the river."
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire recognizes not only the dilemma with the
current corps budget, but the importance of the Allegheny's navigation
system to attract new business.
"Our ability to increase waterways traffic is directly related to the
status of the structure of each entity on the river," he said. "If
people are unsatisfied with the long-term prognosis, they'll avoid our
region all together."
To prevent the Allegheny's locks and dams from going into worse
disrepair, Altmire and others say more money has to be added to the
Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which is paid in to by a
20-cent-per-gallon diesel fuel tax levied on the commercial towing
industry.
The fund pays for 50 percent of the federal capital investment in the
nation's inland waterways and is "grossly insufficient to meet all of
the demands," said McCarville.
"The Port of Pittsburgh is working with operators to come to an
agreement with the trust fund," Altmire said. "There has to be
recognition and more funding in the trust fund because state and
federal governments are definitely cutting spending."
McCarville reports that the operators agreed to increase their
contribution to the trust fund by up to nine cents a gallon for the
modernization of lock chambers.
However, it also called on the federal government to pick up 100
percent of the cost of the dam repairs and smaller lock improvements,
according to McCarville. That plan is has been rejected by the
administration, he said.
"Now, we're going directly to Congress to see if they can establish the
new plan for the trust fund," he said.
Proposed user fees
There is one funding source ripe for a toll or user fee: for pleasure
boats.
Although recreational boaters pay a boat registration fee to the state
Fish and Boat Commission, none of that money goes toward the river's
navigation system, which the boaters use for free.
During the corps' public meetings last month, a number of boaters
suggested an EZ pass system, the toll collection used by the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, or an extra fee for their boat registration.
Pyle is investigating a fee or toll system for the locks.
"I want to get some kind of numbers drummed up including how many
recreational boaters could pay in," he said. "There's a lot of
calculating."
If lawmakers and boaters are serious about establishing a lock fee, it
would require congressional approval to allow the corps to use those
funds, according to Lenna Hawkins, deputy district engineer for the
corps' Pittsburgh District.
A nonprofit group or a governmental entity such as a county or a state
could be set up to collect fees toward lock operations, she said.
"There could be a host of funding streams, and we are going to search
what has been done across the country," she said.
Hawkins and Col. Graham have already spoken to local members of
Congress about the prospect.
"They all seem supportive of a potential public-private partnership,"
she said.
In the meantime, the Armstrong County commissioners are trying to
gather stakeholders, local businesses, and boaters to form a coalition.
"If there's a partnership," Commissioner Jim Scahill said, "I can't see
the state of Pennsylvania not being involved.
"Our struggle is to get everyone in the room together and some common
voice out of it."
Scahill concedes that they still need to find a "champion -- someone to
go to bat for us nationally."
But it's early in the game, with the Army corps cuts only proposed last
month.
"We need to process this properly," Scahill said, "and have to be given
the time to do it."
Same scenario plays out in other parts of country
The demise of commercial boat traffic and resulting drop in federal
funding for inland lock systems has played out in other parts of the
country.
It's the same tale as the Allegheny River.
The typical scenario: Commercial traffic vanishes, federal funding is
cut, locks decay and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduces service.
Then it puts the facilities in "caretaker status" and maybe transfers
the facilities to state or local government.
In the past 20 years, the corps has divested 24 locks to states and
municipalities, according to Jim Walker, navigation manager at the
Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington.
"We're looking at reducing federal expenditures at low, commercial-use
locks either by turning them over to a non-federal operator or by
reducing operating hours and applying the savings to keep high
commercial-use locks operating," Walker said.
In Kentucky, the state has closed most of the locks on the Kentucky
River because of disrepair and lack of funding.
Conversely, the Muskingum River in Ohio still has its locks open
because the state considers it a prime recreational area.
In both cases, a state agency stepped in to pay for or take over the
locks and established fees.
There also are examples of private-public partnership such as the
Willamette River in Oregon, where a coalition formed to help bring in
more money to the lock system.
Kentucky River, Kentucky
The Kentucky River Authority, a state agency, was established in 1986
to take over 10 locks and dams from the Corps of Engineers.
At that point, there was little commercial boat traffic and the locks
and dams were put in caretaker status.
A drought in 1986 caused some restrictions for drinking water from the
river, motivating the state to protect and improve the waterway.
The state later closed its locks because of the maintenance issues,
according to David Hamilton, an engineer at the river authority in
Frankfort, Ky.
Concrete barriers were installed to ensure the pools remained, in case
a lock chamber gave way.
"With all our dams we have water supply in each pool," said Hamilton.
"The concern is if gates fail that would jeopardize the communities'
water supply."
The state funds the operations of the lock-and-dam system with a fee
passed on to water users, with a typical household paying 25 to 35
cents a month on their water bills, according to Hamilton.
That is changing.
"We've used water money specifically for maintaining the water supply
portion of the river," he said. "Now we're looking to change to have
water user fees to pay for recreational boat traffic at locks, 1, 2, 3
and 4.
"There's been a good push for it to encourage recreational boat traffic
for economic reasons," Hamilton said.
Muskingum River, Ohio
A system of 11 locks and dams completed by 1841 made the Muskingum
River navigable from Marietta to Dresden and connected to the Ohio and
Erie Canal.
The locks and dams deteriorated in late 19th century and the Army Corps
of Engineers took them over and restored the structures. Then after
damages from a flood in 1913, the Army corps spent five years repairing
the system, which never again flourished commercially.
In 1948, the corps decided not to provide upkeep for the navigation
system. Residents pressured the state to take over the lock system in
1958 and restore the locks for recreational boat traffic.
Currently, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources manages the system.
The state renovated much of the system; only the northern-most lock,
no. 11, near Dresden is closed, due to deterioration and lack of
traffic, said Mike Jarvis, assistant park manager of the Muskingum
River Parkway.
"The locks didn't have near the number of boats that were in the lower
part of the river, and we used what money we had at the more heavily
used locks," he said.
In 1991, the state introduced lock passage fees to helped supplement
funding.
The river averages about 8,000 recreational boats per season, with the
locks operating from May through October on Fridays through Mondays.
Jarvis said that a number of factors account for the longevity of the
system.
"The recreational boaters have a strong driving interest," he said.
"They're the ones that insist to move forward.
"And the state parks department is dedicated to preserving the cultural
history of it," Jarvis said. "We have history on our side."
The 160-year-old lock system is on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Mary Ann Thomas can be reached at mthomas@tribweb.com or 412-782-2121
x1510.