Upper Mississippi River System Navigation Expansion

For more than six years, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has been studying the expansion of navigation facilities on the upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Among the alternatives being analyzed is a proposal to widen up to seven locks from their current 600 feet to 1200 feet. Expanding these locks will greatly increase barge traffic on the system and result in significant impacts on the already declining natural resources of the watershed, particularly fisheries, backwater habitats, and bottom land hardwood forests.

The Corps’ preliminary economic analysis of lock extensions indicates that such a project would not be warranted for more than 20 years. The commercial barge industry and agri-business interests who would benefit from the project are successfully seeking support in Congress for legislation designed to expedite lock extension regardless of the environmental consequences or economic feasibility. Such measures would essentially short-circuit the Federal planning process and could jeopardize the validity of the Environmental Impact Statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act. Therefore,

Be It Resolved, by the Indiana Division, Izaak Walton League of America, Inc., in convention assembled this 13th day of June, 1999, at Griffith, Indiana, that it opposes any legislation that would support design or authorize the extension of any locks on the Upper Mississippi River System prior to completion of the planning process and Environmental Impact Statements required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Be It Further Resolved, That the Indiana Division states its opposition to expansion of navigation facilities on the Upper Mississippi River System, and calls upon Congress, the relevant Federal agencies, and the states of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Indiana to increase their efforts to reverse the decline of the Upper Mississippi River watershed’s critical natural resources.