?Total abandonment? of Great Lakes dredging

æTotal abandonmentÆ of Great Lakes dredging    The Obama administration's proposal to trim the Great Lakes dredging budget by 32 percent in fiscal year 2012 has the Great Lakes shipping industry declaring a 'state of emergency.'
   Specifically, the White House's proposed appropriation for lakes dredging next year will remove the smallest amount of sediment since the Army Corps of Engineers started keeping records more than a half-century ago, the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force noted. As a result, only 11 of the 83 U.S Great Lakes ports will be dredged.
   'Never in my 51 years in this industry have I seen such a total abandonment of the federal government's responsibility to maintain the Great Lakes navigation system,' said John D. Baker, the task force's president, in a statement on Wednesday.
   'Cargo movement on the Fourth Sea Coast can top 200 million tons per year, yet the federal government is turning its back on us,' he said. ' What was a dredging crisis is now a state of emergency for each of the eight Great Lakes states. At this funding level, the Corps won't be able to dredge even half of the sediment that builds up each year.'
   Baker warned, 'if this proposed dredging budget is implemented, ports will close and cargo will either shift to modes of transportation that burn more fuel and produce more emissions than vessels or production will be moved to other regions of the country or even overseas.'
   Baker, who is also president emeritus of the International Longshoremen's Association's Great Lakes District Council, noted the lakes are shouldering a disproportionate share of the nationwide decrease in federal dredging funds.
   'The lakes budget is being slashed by 32 percent, more than any other navigation system. Why? The Great Lakes basin is America's industrial heartland, and these waters are our link to overseas markets via the St. Lawrence Seaway, but we are being treated like second-class citizens,' he said.
   About 3.5 million cubic yards of sediment build up in Great Lakes ports and waterways each year. Funding for dredging has been inadequate for years, so 15.5 million cubic yards of sediment already clog the system and consequently thousands of tons of cargo are left behind each time a vessel leaves port.
   The administration's budget will only dredge 1.6 million cubic yards next year. The task force estimates that the backlog will increase to more than 17 million cubic yards unless Congress provides more funds.
   Eugene Caldwell, the task force's first vice president, who is also vice president and general manager of Bay Shipbuilding Co., warned there is no reserve carrying capacity available to serve Lakes industries.
   'When the economy is strong, the entire fleet is in service,' Caldwell said. 'There will be no way to overcome this crippling lack of dredging next year.'
   The task force said government can actually fully fund dredging on the Lakes and nationwide without raising taxes or borrowing.
   'The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF), which is the depository for tax dollars levied on waterborne commerce, has a surplus of $5.65 billion,' said Don Cree, the task force's second vice president and Great Lakes special assistant for the American Maritime Officers union.    'We all recognize the need for the federal government to balance the budget, but there is no reason to further reduce spending dredging dollars which were to be held in trust. The HMTF has a surplus precisely because it already doesn't spend what it should on dredging.'
   Bills have been introduced in both the House (H.R. 104) and Senate (S. 412) that would require the HMTF to spend what it takes in each year, about $1.6 billion.
   'We urge those Great Lakes legislators who have yet to cosponsor these bills to do so as quickly as possible and avert an economic catastrophe,' Cree said. 'Adequate funding, in this case a $200 million appropriation, or 3.5 percent of the HMTF surplus, restores the Great Lakes navigation system to project dimensions.'