The State of U.S. Waterways

To a certain extent, this advantage is a residual benefit of having one of the world’s largest navigable inland waterways running through the heart of our domestic soybean producing region—especially considering that the Brazilians have no comparable barge transport infrastructure. But while the location of the Mississippi River on a map is certainly a benefit, it is hardly enough to maintain the premium enjoyed by American soybeans on its own.

Lack of Investment

A huge part of maintaining that foothold is a significant national investment in our transportation infrastructure. However, the U.S. has not adequately invested in waterways infrastructure over the past few decades. When it was created, our system of locks and dams were state of the art. Unfortunately, that original construction took place in the 1930s and has far exceeded the 50-year expected lifespan.

This problem is not one with an easy solution. Ideally, if we want to optimize efficiency and our global competitiveness, we need to replace the aging locks and dams with new, larger locks and dams that accommodate the larger barges without the time and cost of breaking them up to pass through.

Like so many issues, the primary challenge of addressing this need is cost. The cost to replace the outdated locks and dams is significant and the federal process and mechanisms for funding waterways transportation infrastructure is not conducive to large-scale projects. These projects need funding certainty and up-front, lump sums rather than unpredictable, unreliable annual appropriations that only provide funding in a slow trickle at best.

At ASA, we recognize the challenges and realities of the federal government moving swiftly to provide the significant funding that would be needed to replace the waterways infrastructure, but we don’t think that should be an excuse for taking no action at all. If the funding is not available to build new, larger locks and dams, then less costly upgrades could and should be undertaken. More funding should be provided for maintenance, renovation, or rehabilitation of existing locks and dams, which is substantially less than the cost of replacement and expansion. Certainly, this would result in lost opportunity cost of not building the optimal system, and some of the infrastructure may be beyond the point of rehabilitation and repair, but we need to invest in upgrades where they can provide immediate benefits or avoid catastrophic failures. As the nation experienced with the recent work slowdown at the west coast ports, if we suffer a failure of one or more of the outdated locks and dams on the Mississippi River system, it would have severe impacts on U.S. commerce and ripple effects throughout the economy.

Advocating for Improvements

ASA worked along with industry partners and stakeholders to champion the overdue passage of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act in 2014, as well as the increase in the barge fuel fee to increase funding for projects carried out through the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. These are certainly steps in the right direction that begin to get the process back on track and begin to address the project backlog. These are only the beginning stages, though, and much more must occur to get us where we need to be.

Now, the annual appropriations bills must reflect the policy changes achieved in the 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act. Also, additional sources of significant funding must be identified to replace and expand or renovate and rehabilitate our outdated locks and dams.

It’s important to remember that these investments are hardly empty ones. Commitment to our waterway infrastructure begets significant benefits in the form of job creation, manufacturing productivity, competitiveness of farm exports, reduced greenhouse gas emissions from reduced demand on trucking, and many others. The benefits clearly outweigh the costs of investment in these projects, but they require the kind of significant, up-front and long-term investment of which Congress and the federal government, at least of late has been incapable of achieving.