Congress negotiates compromise on waterways bill

The House and Senate have advanced legislation that includes the Water Resources Development Act, which authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge ports and maintain locks on inland waterways essential to commerce.    House and Senate lawmakers reached an agreement on a huge water infrastructure bill that authorizes improvements for ports, inland waterways and flood protection, and includes emergency aid for addressing lead contamination in Flint, Mich.’s water system.
   The Water Infrastructure Improvements Act for the Nation (WIIN) Act essentially combined the renewal of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that was passed by both chambers earlier this year with authorizing language for $170 million in appropriations to help communities meet safe drinking water requirements.
   The negotiated compromise was not reached through a formal conference of lawmakers handpicked to represent each chamber, as is normal procedure.
   The water resources legislation mostly draws its provisions from the Senate version of WRDA and appears to include most of the policy and technical recommendations sought by port authorities.
   WRDA identifies about $9 billion worth of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ navigation, flood control and environmental restoration projects eligible for Congress to fund.
   Maritime industry officials and key lawmakers are eager to get the legislation signed into law and put the reauthorization process on a two-year cycle. Congress in 2014 passed a WRDA bill with many cost-control and project-delivery reforms after a seven-year hiatus. Until 2000, Corps of Engineers programs were authorized every two years.
   The House is planning to vote on the legislation later this week, possibly on Thursday, a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesman said. However, the legislation could hit a stumbling block in the Senate over provisions dealing with California’s drought because some Democrats are upset that approving dams to collect water will cause environmental damage.
   The 2016 WRDA bill would update the cost-share formula for harbor deepening projects from 45 feet to 50 feet, extend funding authorization for donor and energy-transfer ports, and streamline and expedite procedures for completing existing projects, as well as authorize dredging projects to deepen navigation channels in eight ports.
   The new cost-share formula would establish 50-feet as the depth where the federal government would cover 75 percent of the dredging cost and local sponsors would pay the balance for deepening projects. For three decades, deepening projects for depths greater than 45 feet have been split 50/50. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) of 2014 revised the cost-share depth to 50 feet from 45 feet for maintenance dredging. The provision aligns new construction and maintenance dredging policies and reflects the fact that the standard depth at many ports must be 50 feet to accommodate next-generation cargo vessels without restriction.
   The bill also extends the authorization period by two years for so-called “donor” ports and energy transfer ports to be eligible for funding from the Harbor Maintenance Tax. WRRDA provided some equity to ports that require minimal dredging to maintain their authorized depths so they could use funds for other improvements. Ports with a large percentage of their throughput tied to energy products, such as oil, also qualified to use HMT funding for alternative uses, including berth deepening and environmental remediation.
   WRRDA authorizes appropriators to direct $50 million of HMT money each fiscal year over four years for alternative uses at ports that paid more into the system, as well as energy ports, with four additional years of such authorization if Congress hit the appropriation target for HMT spending in each of the first four years. But Congress came up short in fiscal year 2015, primarily because appropriators had almost wrapped up the annual Energy and Water Development appropriation bill by the time WRRDA passed in the summer of 2014.
   Missing the target means that donor-port authorization would expire in 2018, but the new bill permanently extends that authorization.
   Harbor deepening projects that would get the green light for federal funding include the Port of Charleston in South Carolina and Port Everglades in Florida. Those projects have undergone lengthy feasibility studies and have been recommended to Congress as worthwhile to pursue by the Corps of Engineers. Once authorized, federal funds for project construction can be sought through annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bills.
   Democrats also tried to make permanent a “Buy American” provision requiring American iron and steel be used in any water projects, but the legislation maintains the current one-year extension in annual appropriations bills. Democrats said Republicans should be consistent with President-elect Trump’s infrastructure plan, which talks about sourcing construction materials from America, The Hill reported.