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HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS: You may make your reservations at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Conference Center by either calling the hotel at 1-877-545-0311 and providing the name of the group, “Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association Meeting 2019,” or visiting the following link: Book your group rate for Coosa Alabama River Improvement Association. The group rate for the room is $149 (plus tax). The cutoff date for the group is: Monday August 12, 2019.

Federal employees with an ID may reserve a room at the Federal per diem rate (plus tax). If you are a federal employee with an ID, you must book directly through the Association by emailing info@caria.org. The cutoff date for the federal group is also: Monday August 12, 2019. Please note that all reservations, including the Rooming List for the federal employees, will need to be made by this date in order to guarantee the group discount.

Registration and Sponsorship information to be released soon.

House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a massive spending bill to fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2018. The government has been operating on a series of continuing resolutions since October, and this agreement removes the uncertainty that arises from those short-term measures.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works program would receive funding of $6.8 billion, an increase of $789 million from the FY17 levels.  That includes $3 billion for navigation projects and studies, with $1.4 billion from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and full use of revenues from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and $1.9B for flood and storm damage reduction projects, an increase of $215M above FY17.

The Investigations account would receive $123 million; Construction at $2.085 billion; Mississippi River and Tributaries at $425 million; Operation and Maintenance at $3.630 billion; and $200 million for Regulatory.

The bill includes specific instructions for evaluating studies and projects that would be eligible for the additional funding provided, as well as directions for new starts.  A detailed work plan must be provided to the Congress within 60 days of enactment. The bill also continues the prohibition on the implementation of the final Principles and Requirements, directing the Corps to continue to use the 1983 Principles and Guidelines.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure this afternoon.  While passage is expected, this morning’s vote to proceed, 211 to 207, on the 2200-page bill required Republicans and Democrats to come together to fend off opposition from the Freedom Caucus who objected to the price tag and policies they consider contrary to what Republicans campaigned on, and some Democrats who were frustrated the bill does not include any provisions to the protect the Dreamers.

The Senate is expected to approve the bill tomorrow, sending it to the President for his signature before the midnight deadline.

Additional analysis will be provided in our upcoming newsletter.  Bill text can be found here:

Energy and Water provisions:

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180319/DIV%20D%20EW%20SOM%20FY18-OMNI.OCR.pdf

Complete bill information:

http://docs.house.gov/floor/

Presentations at the CARIA Annual Meeting on April 28 covered a range of topics from dredging to black pellets to dam safety.  Click HERE to view presentations. Attendees were also treated to a social gathering at  a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game, enjoying the game, barbecue, and beer.  The CARIA Board of Directors approved a proposal to schedule a session to update Board members on the array of legal and regulatory provisions required of a non-profit organization.  That session is scheduled for August 24.

An article published in the online version of “Roll Call,” a Washington Capitol Hill news outlet since 1955, calls for more investment in the nation’s waterways as a method to improve efficiency in the US transportation system.

Written by the US Soybean Board, the article naturally promotes the waterways from the perspective of agribusiness in the Midwest (i.e., the major channels of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers), but most certainly applies to navigation channels in the tributary systems, including those in the Southeast.

Read the article by clicking here.

Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers publishes a report assessing the quality of the nation’s infrastructure, i.e., roads, bridges, rail, ports and waterways, air, and other basic foundations of our society. The report just published gave that infrastructure a D+, which is up all the way from the D- mark from four years ago, but still pretty close to flunking even minimally accepted standards.

President Trump’s initiative to restore the infrastructure to a functional status is needed, but it will be expensive, estimated by the ASCE to be $2 trillion. The President has floated a target of $1 trillion over the next several years. Lots of questions about the timing of proposed projects and how and who will pay for those projects. We need to pay attention.

Does the President’s mention of infrastructure in his inaugural address mean there’s hope for waterway projects in Alabama? Well, so far there’s no direct indication, but there is eternal hope as the US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) began hearings today on America’s “21st century infrastructure.”

In a statement released by T&I Committee and printed in the online version of the American Journal of Transportation, T&I Committee Chair Bill Shuster (R-PA) said a “strong infrastructure means a strong America…” but one that “will face significant challenges in the future.”

Mr. Shuster went to say our “infrastructure policies have to keep pace with changing technologies” and President Trump’s election “raised the profile of infrastructure in the minds of the American people and policymakers…. (the) wind is at our backs, and it’s time to act on our infrastructure needs.” Citing the need for a modern infrastructure, including “ports and waterways that let our farmers and manufacturers move their crops and products to remain competitive with other nations,” he said his vision is a modern infrastructure” where “transportation efficiency improves the bottom line for our job creators” who can “put more people to work.”

What all that means for Alabama’s waterways is to be determined as no doubt priority will be given to the main stem waterways. The Alabama River needs to be dredged annually to maximize the potential of barge movements throughout the year. CARIA will continue to work with the Alabama delegation in Washington toward that goal.

The “Water Wars” between the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia have been ongoing three decades without resolution. The dispute is over how much water each state is entitled to in both the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) and the Apalachilcola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basins. The more contentious of the two has been the ACF with the latest round of lawsuits and countersuits filed by the State of Florida against Georgia. Florida contends its oyster beds have been affected severely by the lack of water from upstream sources in the ACF system, caused primarily by the amount of water being pulled out of the Chattahoochee to satisfy out-of-control growth in the Atlanta area and out of the Flint for irrigation. Georgia contends Florida’s oyster problem is a result of Florida’s mismanagement of the oyster beds. Alabama has filed an amicus brief favoring Florida’s position.

An article in the online site Greenwire from the Environmental and Energy Policy News notes the Florida-Georgia dispute is now in a Portland, Maine court. Click here to find out why the long-running Southeast issue is being heard in Maine.

Outlook for any relief from drought conditions is dim across much of the Southeast over the next few weeks. According to the National Weather Center’s Climate Prediction Center , exceptional drought conditions, the most severe on the NWC scale, exist generally along the northern trace of the Coosa River Basin into Alabama and a thin band across central Georgia. Almost all of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi are experiencing moderate to severe conditions. The seasonal outlook depicts these conditions to persist, possibly into late November, December, and maybe even January.

From Workboat magazine: Creative Commons photo by Bjoertvedt

The US Department of Transportation has announced that it has awarded $4.85 million in grants to six Marine Highway projects along the waterways of 17 states and the District of Columbia.

The goal of the Maritime Administration’s Marine Highway Program is to expand the use of our nation’s navigable waterways to relieve landside congestion, reduce air emissions, and generate other public benefits by increasing the efficiency of the surface transportation system. Click here for an article on the subject from Workboat magazine.