River navigation study resumed

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Environmentalists are concerned about the speed with which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is resuming its navigation study on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The corps restarted the controversial study Aug. 2 after keeping in the "pause" mode for five months. An interim report on the study is due in July. A draft of that report has a Feb. 2 deadline.

Corps officials have said the refocused study will emphasize environmentally sustainable use of the river and address concerns raised in February by the National Research Council.

But members of the Navigation Environmental Coordination Committee, meeting Thursday for the first time in 11 months, expressed concern that the study is back on a fast track.

Barge shippers and farmers say expansion and improvement of locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers is necessary to save time and remain competitive in a world market. The study is trying to determine whether the project is economically feasible.

The committee, which continued its meeting Friday, represents environmental groups as well as the state governments of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri.

Denny Lundberg, the study's project manager, told the group Thursday that the "states are still confused about what we're doing collaboratively."

Collaboration among groups is supposed to be a key component of the study. That effort also includes what Lundberg calls the "federal family" of agencies: the departments of Agriculture and Transportation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Regional Work Group.

Among the ideas the committee considers important in addressing sustainability are:

Completion of plans in each of the Upper Mississippi pools;

Active management of the ecosystem;

Diversity of the floodplain forest;

Considering needs beyond the navigation channel;

Arresting decline in the ecosystem;

Using previous reports and studies of the Upper Mississippi in helping to gauge sustainability.