MODERNIZING RIVER TRANSPORTATION IS GOOD FOR ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY FIVE STAR LIFT Edition

• Published in: St. Louis post-dispatch
• Main Author: Brescia, Christopher J
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: St. Louis, Mo Pulitzer, Inc 12.04.2000
• Subjects: Expansion; Infrastructure; Transportation; Mississippi River
• ISSN: 1930-9600

Christopher J. Brescia is president of the Midwest Area River Coalition 2000, a St. Louis-based regional organization of agricultural and industrial producers, grain processors, waterway transportation companies allied with labor leaders and other economic development constituents. A thundering attack on the nation's navigable waterways recently roared downstream like a Mississippi flood. The attack questioned the wisdom of expanding our locks and dams to meet the needs of the 21st century. It basically said everything we've spent on the rivers to build industry is just federal waste. Extremists want to reduce the importance of the Mississippi as the conduit for more than 300 million tons of the nation's cargo. This system supports more than 400,000 jobs, including 90,000 in manufacturing, and is the avenue for more than 60 percent of U.S. grain exports. Never mind this investment has returned $6 in benefits for every $1 invested by this nation. Never mind the lock-and-dam system on the Upper Mi ssissippi has fostered a recreational mecca. Never mind that cities, like St. Louis, Quincy, Hannibal and Davenport and on up to St. Paul, have reliable water supplies. Organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club would prefer that instead of capitalizing on these assets we move our products by some alternative means.