The United States Congress historically  authorizes a water resources development act every two years. But the last water resource bill was authorized in 2007.  The good new for those, like interests representing inland waterways and ports, awaiting the enactment of a new water bill is that both the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly passed  water resources legislation in 2013 with bipartisan support. The bad news is that each house passed its own version of the bill--the Senate version called the Water Resources Development Act of 2013 and the House version dubbed the Water Resources Reform & Development Act--which differ in a few key provisions.  Both versions provide increased funding for projects involving inland waterways but the two versions will need to be reconciled and approved by both chambers before it can make it way to the White House for a presidential signature. The administration has weighed in in favor of increasing funding for water development projects. But the House-Senate conference committee tasked with reconciling the differences between the House and Senate bills has met only once, in December, and is not scheduled to meet again. Still, Sean Duffy, executive director of the Big River Coalition, is hopeful that the legislation will become law before the end of this year. “We expect that the conference committee will reconvene within the next couple of months,” he said. “I am confident that we will see a water bill this year.” The Big River Coalition is a group that represents navigation interests from pilots and port authorities throughout the entire Mississippi River system from Louisiana to Pittsburgh and Minnesota. What’s in it for inland waterways and ports is primarily dredging and maintenance of navigation channels as well as the promise that more of the revenues allocated to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and the Inland Waterways Trust Fund will actually make their way to port and waterways development projects. But the legislation passed by each chamber of Congress are actually wide-ranging bills that cover flood control and other water resource provisions in addition to inland waterways projects.  According to a report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1.9 billion tons of bulk freight and 43 million TEUs with a total value of $152 billion moved on the U.S. water transportation system in 2010. Industry growth is expected to increase by 12 percent in 2020 to $170 billion.  “The legislation offers distinct solutions to many of the problems facing maritime waterways and commerce, including fixing the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and improvements to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund,” said Duffy. “We have a lot of waterways in need of maintenance dredging and other mattes like the repair of jetties and disposal projects that are in need of attention.” Proponents of the legislation say the nation’s ports and waterways are grossly underfunded for routine operation and maintenance needs due to the misallocation revenues from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. “At the end of fiscal year 2013, the trust fund balance of unspent revenues totaled $8 billion,” said Duffy. “But because the HMTF is not a separate off-budget account within the federal budget, the surplus is used as a budget gimmick to reduce the deficit or is spent on general government activities. Right now, there is an IOU from the government of over $7 billion that should be used to dredge the nation’s ports and waterways to their full authorized width and depth.” Each version of the legislation does it somewhat differently, but both agree on the need for additional allocations from the trust funds. “Right now the trust finds allocate about half of the annual revenues received,” Duffy explained, “so that each year there is a $750 million shortfall between what is collected an what is allocated. Each version would increase that funding incrementally over the next five years, with a cap coming in the fifth year when it is approaching 80 to 100 percent of funding  from trust fund collections.” The increased funding provided by the legislation will boost the ability of the Army Corps of Engineers to perform maintenance dredging along the Mississippi and elsewhere. But it will also benefit other related projects such as those focused on the beneficial use of dredge material. “The Corps maintains our locks and dams, essential components of our nations’ infrastructure,” said Duffy. “Many of the locks and dams were constructed in the 1930s and most of them are operating well beyond their intended lifespan. Industries including agriculture, mining and manufacturing move bulk products efficiently by barge throughout the 12,000 miles of rivers and canals that make up the inland river system. Improvements to our inland waterways will increase our ability to transport goods and bulk items, increase employment and positively affect our nation’s GDP. Without this increased funding, the negative impacts will be felt by consumers, manufacturers, producers, shippers and carriers throughout the 30 states that rely upon a dependable Mississippi River transportation system.” Specific projects that would benefit from increased funding include the Mississippi River deep-draft channel from Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico. “That activity is underfunded every year,” said Duffy. “If we have a high river year with flooding like we did a couple of years ago, we will have a lot of extra silt coming down the river. If that is not cleared we can have draft restrictions on the river. Other potential problems can include the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms which encourage shoaling on the river. One of the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy is that these projects really serve to protest the communities behind them.” Duffy believes that progress on the legislation will be made over the next few months. “I think it will be done by his summer,” said Duffy. “Everyone who is waiting for this would like to see it happen rapidly. On the other side of the coin, we haven’t had a water bill since 2007. It’s taken seven years to get a another water bill passed. It will happen eventually.”