Promote the effective management of water resources throughout the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin.

CARIA's mission of promoting the multipurpose uses of a waterway dictates its interest in how those waterways are managed. In the ACT Basin, the management responsibility lies primarily with US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Alabama Power Company (APCo), who work in concert to ensure each reservoir and water project is managed as authorized by the federal government. Only through cooperation and adherence to a comprehensive management plan can the Corps and APCo ensure flows required to maintain flood control, generate hydroelectric power, and provide for recreation, navigation, water supply, and environmental quality. CARIA seeks to be actively involved as a basinwide stakeholder in any issue that affects these uses. In the Coosa and Tallapoosa Basins, our focus is on recreation and flood control. On the Alabama, navigation and recreation are primary.

Market the economic potential of the Coosa-Alabama River Basin.

The waterways are a rich quality-of-life resource for inhabitants of the ACT Basin. Besides the obvious uses such as water supply, flood control, and hydropower, waterways have become a major economic tool as recreation and transportation assets for waterside communities. For example, Weiss Lake in northeast Alabama, the Crappie Capital of the World, contributes over $200 million a year to the economy of the region. In fact, reservoirs within all three river basins can boast of positive economic effects on local communities. Without the reservoirs, who knows what the effect would be on quality of life?

On the Alabama River, an additional economic tool not available on either the Coosa or Tallapoosa is a navigable channel from Mobile to Montgomery. The presence of such a channel benefits the citizens of Alabama because it expands the list of potential businesses looking to relocate or expand operations. Some bulk commodities used in manufacturing or production (e.g., coal, wood, petrochemicals, etc.) or finished outsized products (e.g., steel hulls for ships) can be moved more efficiently and at less cost on barges than any other mode of transportation.

The presence of a barge capability has other advantages. The cost of other modes of transportation, such as rail and truck, tend to be lower. Barges are more environmentally friendly, emit fewer pollutants, burn less fuel, and produce less noise than either rail or truck. Barges provide a safer alternative to both truck and rail. One 1500-ton capacity barge, the standard size, can carry as much as 58-60 semis or 15 railcars, thus reducing traffic congestion on both our highways and railways.

But advantages of barges can only be realized if there exists within the river basin industries that use barge transportation, typically wood and pulp, steel, sand and gravel, bulk chemical and petroleum products, coal, and grain, among many others. The Coosa-Alabama River Basin has the potential for supporting all of these products, particularly the wood and pulp, sand and gravel, and steel. CARIA works with various economic development agencies, chambers of commerce, and governmental agencies to market the river basin. A major problem with this effort is the low navigational reliability (the amount of time the navigation channel can be maintained at its authorized depth of nine feet) at various points on the Alabama, particularly below Claiborne Dam, where depths of less than seven feet are common during the late summer months.

Maintain and improve the Alabama River and Mobile Harbor.

The Alabama River, the Mobile River, and Mobile Harbor represent the waterway link between Montgomery and Mobile. The Corps of Engineers is charged with maintaining that channel at an authorized depth of nine feet and width of 200 feet and the Mobile Harbor at its depth of 45 feet. The Corps uses dredging, training works (jetties constructed in the river to channel the flow along a certain path), and management of water releases from dam reservoirs to maintain that depth and width. CARIA works with Congress each year in support of funding for the Corps of Engineers to operate and maintain these projects. Without that funding, channel maintenance would cease. The waterway would close due to the continuing buildup of silt on the river bottom, which would not allow barges and tows to traverse certain parts of the Alabama, particularly in the 70-mile stretch between Claiborne Dam and the river's confluence with the Tombigbee. The maintenance of this waterway as an authorized project is critical to the economic development of the Alabama River Basin.

Establish a navigation channel in the Coosa River from Montgomery, Alabama to Rome, Georgia.

This goal was part of the original charter of CARIA when it was formed in 1890. Congress authorized the construction of a navigation channel between Mobile, Alabama, and Rome, Georgia, in the River and Harbor Act of 1945. The Mobile-Montgomery channel was completed in 1972. The Act was modified in 1954 to allow private interests (Alabama Power Company) to construct a series of dams on the Coosa River for the purpose of generating hydropower. The modification included a provision for "future economical construction of navigation facilities," i.e., locks around each dam on the Coosa. The Corps of Engineers developed plans to construct those locks while CARIA and Alabama's congressional representatives sought funding for the project. Several studies by the Corps of Engineers presented various estimates of the benefits of completing the project versus its costs ranging from 0.46 to 2.3, depending on whether regional benefits could be considered. The last meaningful effort for funding ended in 1983 when federal budget considerations and the competing Tenn-Tom Waterway took priority.

While the possibility of securing funding for a commercial navigation channel on the Coosa is extremely remote, CARIA maintains its advocacy for keeping the concept of the Coosa River Navigation Project alive because of the potential of recreational traffic on the Upper Coosa, particularly between Rome and Gadsden. We contend that such a link would be a major economic boost to the Upper Coosa region.

Educate the general public on the history and economic benefits of improving the nation's inland waterways.

The inland waterways have always been an integral part of the nation's transportation infrastructure. One of CARIA's objectives is to promote the benefits of those waterways and to make people aware of their value to the economic health of our nation. We do this through distribution of educational materials, public presentations, quarterly newsletters, annual meetings, and continuing dialogue with appropriate entities in the public and private sectors - and now through the World Wide Web.