Good Example of Investigative Article

This article is a good example of some nice investigative reporting--note the number of sources and the sidebar article that compares situations in neighboring states.

Allegheny River towns fight to save locks

By Mary Ann Thomas, ASPINWALL HERALD

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.



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