Abstract: The Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (UMR-IWW) is at the center of a debate over the future of inland navigation, the restoration of rivers used for multiple purposes, and the reliability and completeness of the Corps analyses justifying investments. Consequently, authorization of investments in navigation and ecosystem restoration of the UMR-IWW has played a role in WRDA debates in the 109th Congress; among the topics debated are the cost, urgency, necessity, and national benefit of expanded UMR-IWW navigation capacity and ecosystem restoration. The UMR-IWW is a 1,200-mile, 9-foot-deep navigation channel created by 37 lock-and-dam sites and thousands of channel training structures built beginning in 1822. The UMR-IWW makes commercial navigation possible between Minneapolis and St. Louis on the Mississippi River, and along the Illinois Waterway from Chicago to the Mississippi River. It permits upper midwestern states to benefit from low-cost barge transport. Since the 1980s, the system has experienced increasing traffic delays, purportedly reducing competitiveness of U.S. products in some global markets. The river is also losing the habitat diversity that has allowed it to support an unusually large number of species for a temperate river. This loss is partially attributable to changes in the distribution and movement of river water caused by navigation structures and operation of the 9-foot navigation channel. In December 2004, the Corps’ Chief of Engineers approved a UMR-IWW 50- year framework for navigation and ecosystem restoration investments, as laid out in a Corps final feasibility report. This framework consists of combined navigation investments ($2.4 billion) and ecosystem restoration investments ($5.3 billion), to be accomplished through incremental implementation. For the first increment, the Chief recommends authorizing $1.88 billion (50% from the Inland Waterway Trust Fund and 50% from federal general revenues) for seven new locks and small-scale navigation measures, and $1.46 billion ($1.33 billion from federal general revenue and $0.13 billion from nonfederal partners) for ecosystem restoration. The two proposed Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bills — H.R. 2864 and S. 728 — would authorize investments in navigation ($2.03 billion) and ecosystem restoration ($1.58 billion) for the UMR-IWW. The bills would authorize most of the initial set of activities recommended in the Corps’ feasibility report. This CRS report compares the bill language from the 109th Congress with the Corps’ feasibility report. This report will be updated as events warrant. For more information on the issues and status of WRDA, see CRS Report RL33504, Water Resources Development Act (WRDA): Corps of Engineers Authorization Issues, coordinated by Nicole T. Carter.

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Topics: Water, Legislative