WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Congress is poised to pass the latest water infrastructure bill under the "Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024," which will help offset some inland waterway costs while focusing heavily on flood risks nationally.
The bill, named after retiring Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., is expected to pass the House on Tuesday with broad bipartisan support. Leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, chaired by Carper, came together last week to announce bicameral agreement on the bill. The House held a floor debate on Monday on the bill during which members largely acknowledged the country's water-infrastructure needs and expressed their support.
"We are continuing the bipartisan, bicameral tradition of passing a WRDA bill every two years, something we have done since 2014," said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Graves' staff posted comments from a long list of groups backing the bill that included waterway groups, project developers and environmental groups.
"The projects and policies included in this WRDA bill are vital to the economy, the environment, and the public safety of communities across the country. We urge you to bring this bill up for a vote as soon as possible and for Congress to pass this important piece of legislation," the Nature Conservancy stated in its letter of support.
Once the bill passes the House, the Senate also is expected to quickly take the WRDA bill and pass it before Congress adjourns for the year.
Graves said the bill would ensure the Army Corps of Engineers continues to improve water infrastructure, including ports and levees. The bill also works to streamline some of the studies and permitting processes to help those projects get completed faster, Graves said.
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., ranking member of the committee, noted "ships are getting bigger," and ports need to be deeper. One of the key provisions increases the maximum dredging depth for deepening channels from 50 feet to 55 feet for major harbors. The bill "will strengthen our supply chains and ensure our ports and harbor-deepening projects can accommodate the world's largest ships," Larsen said.
Among the key provisions for inland waterways, the bill makes a permanent adjustment to cost share for new construction and rehabilitation projects. The bill increases the federal cost share from 65% to 75% while the Inland Waterways Trust Fund's responsibility would drop from 35% of funding to 25% of funding needed for a project.
"This cost-share change will allow these projects to advance more efficiently and quickly, reducing the overall costs and accelerating the return on investment," stated the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association in its letter of support for the bill.
As the Soy Transportation Coalition noted, nearly half (48%) of U.S. soybean exports are transported by barge -- primarily to export terminals along the lower Mississippi River, according to USDA reports. A typical 15-barge tow can transport up to 855,000 bushels -- the equivalent of 940 semi-trucks.
"Barge transportation is one of predominant reasons U.S. soybean farmers are so competitive in the international marketplace. Investing in the inland waterway system and ports is simultaneously an investment in the success of soybean farmers," Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition stated.
SOME WRDA DETAILS
The 623-page bill authorizes the Corps of Engineers to begin construction on 21 major projects nationally that have completed technical reviews. Some of those projects deal with port depths, but the most expensive projects deal with managing storm and flood risks in coastal areas often hit by hurricanes.
Some of the largest projects in the bill include:
-- $3.7 billion in federal funds for storm and flood risk management in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as part of a $5.9 billon overall project.
-- $1.775 billion for coastal storm risk management in and around New York City, which is a $2.1 billion total project.
-- $1.75 billion for Miami-Dade County to deal with coastal storm risks, part of a $2.7 billion overall project.
-- $1 billion for Everglades restoration in Florida as part of a $2.1 billion project.
Also among the 21 largest projects are line-items to deepen ports in Oakland, California, Tampa Florida and Baltimore, Maryland.
Along with those major projects, the bill includes authorization for a long list of smaller municipal or regional water or environmental projects nationally. In total, there is more than $5 billion for smaller projects authorized in the bill, but those projects also will require congressional appropriations to be completed.
Reflecting the demands of water infrastructure projects nationally, the WRDA bill also authorizes 200 new studies for the Corps to examine future water-infrastructure projects. Several projects also that have been on the backburner or face other challenges are modified in the bill or eliminated from the Corps' to-do list.
Among the studies, the Corps will examine the risks of flooding in the upper Mississippi River system and its floodplains. The study will look for ways to create more resiliency in those floodplains to reduce risks from river rises.
Rep. Rick Van Orden, R-Wis., speaking in support of the bill, said more needs to done to help local communities manage flood risks along the upper Mississippi. He cited a flood-risk study in the bill for La Crosse, Wisconsin, as one example.
"While there's unparalleled economic transportation and recreational significance of the region, we must do more for the resiliency of the communities along our river," Van Orden said.
The bill also directs the Corps, along with other federal and state agencies, to study the water supply and drought resilience of the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from Nebraska through Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and western Texas.
The bill expands a pilot project in Florida to include parts of Oregon and California to test different ways to reduce nutrient pollution in watersheds that leads to toxic algal blooms. Among the project goals is finding beneficial uses for algal blooms such as fertilizer or biofuels.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said the bill would help western states, including conservation efforts in areas affected by drought and extreme heat. "It is especially important in the West, where whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over," Titus said.
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com
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