Obama Proposes 10% Cut in Army Corps of Engineers Spending While Ohio River Hit by Lock Failure

The Obama FY2011 budget proposal released Feb. l by London flunkey Peter Orszag, calls for a 10 percent cut in civil works spending by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), reducing it from $5.4 billion this year, to $4.9 billion the next. This means cuts in planning, construction, and operations of the whole range of waterways, ports, flood control, hydropower, and other programs for which the Corps is responsible. Just as the Obama demand to cut NASA's manned space program would destroy the science driver for the United States, the proposal to down-size the already minuscule ACE-related public works budget is a deliberate assault on the existence of the nation.

In a dramatic backdrop to the Feb. 1 announcement, the entire Ohio River system was closed to navigation for a few days, following the Jan. 27 failure of the gate at the main lock chamber at Greenup Locks and Dam (in Greenup, Kentucky), near Huntington, West Virginia, as a direct result of the lack of renovation of this and others of the 21 lock and dam installations on the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, because the Corps has lacked funds.

This January Greenup lock failure follows another main gate breakdown which occurred last Sept. 27, at the Markland Locks and Dam near Cincinnati. Now, with both of these main locks down, their smaller, auxiliary locks are accommodating traffic, but at a much reduced pace. The main chamber at Greenup will be closed for at least eight weeks for repairs. The Markland main chamber has been down for four months.

The one exception to the breakdowns, is that of the McAlpine Locks and Dam at Louisville, Kentucky, which finally, March 2009, inaugurated its new twin 1200 ft. main chambers. This came after a multi-year renovation project, prolonged by slow funding. The McAlpine locks are working fine, but the Ohio navigation channel is a stairway, of which no one lock can be down, or the whole channel can not function.

The Ohio River System is a key part of the inland waterways of North America, comprising the Mississippi/Missouri and Illinois systems; the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway; and the Tennessee/Tombigbee Systems. Budget-cutting on these continental scale transportation assets is insane. On the Ohio in particular, 74 percent of the barge cargo is coal—essential for the current mode of power; other cargo includes grain, soybeans, and aggregate from the Allegheny Plateau sandstones and Lakes moraines. Shipping has now become hit-or-miss. The fix-as-fail policy imposed on the Corps is not workable. Before the recent main chamber shutdowns, there were two failures last July at the first locks downriver from Pittsburgh-Emsworth Locks and Dam No. 1, and Dashields, No. 2. They were patched together again. But their outmoded 600 ft. main chambers, plus that of a third installation downstream, are the oldest and smallest on the Ohio. They are over 80 years old! At present, 25 percent of the structures on the Ohio River system are beyond their engineering life. In 10 years, it will be 50 percent.

In 2004, when Lyndon LaRouche was at a campaign event in Louisville, Kentucky, he declared that Bush doesn't give a dam, regarding the underfunding of the local McAlpine locks replacement, and neglect of all the national infrastructure. On Aug. 9 that summer, the McAlpine locks and Ohio navigation system shut down for 10 days due to an emergency breakdown, preventable by proper funding. LaRouche focused attention on the necessity to restore a nation-serving credit and infrastructure policy.

In Congress, Rep. John Murtha (D-Penna), has been an outspoken champion of the Army Corps of Engineers. Murtha, as of yesterday, is the longest-ever serving member of Congress—for 36 years, and is especially insistent on water management. For example, in one of his earmarks for the FY 2010 budget, he called for funding to be continued for the Lower Mon Locks and Dams 2,3 and 4 Program. The funding will be used to continue a multi-year replacement of the aging locks and dams on the Monongahela River (which forms the Ohio, at the confluence with the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh). Visiting Lock and Dam No. 2 in 2008, Murtha summed it up: "We've put it off for 50 years." (Murtha personally represents Johnstown, which suffered a massive flood in 1889, because the Mellon/London financier types from Pittsburgh opposed strengthening a local dam, because it would spoil the view at their lakeside resort.)

These installations are part of 23 locks and dams in the ACE Pittsburgh District jurisdiction, covering the upper Ohio, Allegheny, Monongahela, and feeder rivers, which was described in July 2009 by the District commander as the oldest, largest and most fatigued system in the Corps' inventory. Going full blast with rehabilitation projects would also open up opportunities for CCC-work programs throughout the region.

The new Obama/Orszag/London budget proposal does give an eye-dropper increase to ACE Pittsburgh District of $110.4 million for FY 2011.