TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A $12.3 billion water
infrastructure bill that received final congressional approval Thursday
will step up funding for improving ports and deepening sand-choked
shipping channels in the Great Lakes region, supporters said.
The
measure designates the lakes as a single navigational system for funding
purposes, enabling the region to compete as one unit for money, instead
of individual port communities being pitted against each other. It also
requires the government to make greater use of an existing fund for
maintaining deep-draft ports and waterways.
"This is an important
step toward ensuring that the commercial importance and conservation of
the Great Lakes remains a national priority," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow,
a Michigan Democrat.
The bill received overwhelming bipartisan
support after negotiators with the two chambers reached a compromise
earlier this month, clearing the Senate on a 91-7 vote Thursday
following House approval Tuesday, 412-4. It now goes to the White House
for President Barack Obama’s signature.
Great Lakes shipping
companies and port operators have pleaded for more spending on harbor
maintenance, particularly because low water levels since the late 1990s
have forced vessels to carry lighter loads to avoid scraping bottom in
shallow areas.
Shippers nationwide pay about $1.7 billion a year
in fees on the cargo they haul to support the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund, which is meant to support dredging and port upkeep. But some has
been diverted for other purposes or remains unspent. The fund presently
has a surplus of $8 billion, despite a huge backlog of unmet dredging
needs.
Just over 51 percent of the money collected by the fund is
used for harbor maintenance. The bill will boost that portion to 67
percent in the next fiscal year. The rate will continue rising 3 percent
annually until 2025, when it hits 100 percent.
"More than 18
million cubic yards of sediment clogs the Great Lakes Navigation
System," said James Weakley, president of a regional coalition
representing shipping industry management and labor, who described the
bill’s enactment as "critical."
The bill requires that Great Lakes
projects get at least 10 percent of the money from the fund. And
lawmakers said the designation of the lakes as a unified navigational
system would give smaller harbors a better chance to get a share.
Another
provision would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take
emergency measures as needed to deal with the threat of invasions by
species such as Asian carp — large, voracious fish that have spread
widely in the Mississippi River and its tributaries and are approaching
the Great Lakes.
One such action would be closing the Upper St.
Anthony Falls lock on the Mississippi in Minneapolis, considered a good
location for cutting off the continued spread of silver and bighead carp
farther upstream.