Maritime advocate says feds need to put up $95 million for Mississippi River dredging

A $6 billion trust fund set aside to pay for maintenance of America’s waterways has been used to plug holes in the federal budget. Sean Duffy, executive vice president and maritime advocate for the Mississippi River Maritime Association, says $95 million of that fund should be returned to cover the cost of dredging the Mississippi, in order to keep what he calls the “world’s economic superhighway” running at full capacity. Duffy told the Baton Rouge Press Club today that U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., have both introduced bills to require that the proceeds of a harbor maintenance tax that are applied to all imported goods be used to cover necessary dredging. But in the meantime, Duffy is trying to get money to handle dredging the Mississippi, which has new shallow levels after the devastating floods and high water of earlier this year. “This is not a Louisiana problem,” Duffy says, noting the Mississippi and its tributaries touch 31 states. When shipping on the Mississippi River is affected, the ripples spread rapidly through the U.S. economy. The shutdowns caused by Hurricane Katrina caused the price of a gallon of gas to go up 74 cents overnight. Duffy talked about a “worst-case scenario,” like what happened in 1989, when a Russian ship sank in the Southwest Pass and shut down part of the Mississippi River for 20 days. That did $300 million worth of damage to the U.S. economy each day for the first four or five days of the shutdown. And Duffy says the effects got worse as petrochemical plants and other facilities ran out of raw materials and were forced to shut down. Despite the backing of the powerful petrochemical industry, Duffy says, getting the $95 million for dredging is an “uphill battle” because of Congress’ attitude against earmarks and wanting to offset spending on emergency items. But he says dredging the river could provide an economic boost to barge companies and help restore fragile coastal wetlands. —Timothy Boone