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Barging into the Treasury
Upper Mississippi Lock Expansions

$1.2 billion

"Evidence also revealed that the former Director for Civil Works and the Mississippi Valley Division Commander created a climate that led to the manipulation of the benefits-cost analysis." U.S. Army Inspector General Agency, Report of Investigation into Improprieties on the Upper Mississippi River Navigation Study, December 2000.

In order to facilitate commercial navigation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) operates a series of locks and dams along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and is now working to expand seven locks along the two rivers.

In February 2000, a whistleblower disclosed that the Corps was using improper economic assumptions in its studies of the $1.2 billion lock expansion project. The former lead economist on the study submitted a sworn affidavit and supporting documentation stating that high-ranking officials in the Corps had deliberately changed the economic cost-benefit ratio to justify the expansion of the locks. The whistleblower's statement was later validated in two independent reviews of the project's economics. There are also serious environmental concerns that the project will further erode shoreline areas and disturb important aquatic habitat.

Green Scissors Proposal
Deny federal funds for expansion of the locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, saving federal taxpayers approximately $1.2 billion in initial project costs and future lock expenses.

Current Status

In December 2000, the Army's Office of Special Counsel released a report that concluded that the Corps had an "institutional bias" that favored large, expensive projects, regardless of their economic benefit. This report specifically highlighted the lock expansion proposed for the Mississippi and Illinois River as an example. Several other investigations, including investigations by the General Accounting Office and the National Academy of Sciences, into alleged wrongdoings by senior Corps officials and the project's flawed economics are ongoing and are expected to be completed in 2001. Based upon errors found in the original traffic forecasts, and because of the scandal around the investigation, the Corps has delayed a final decision on whether or not to expand the locks for two years.

Project Hurts Taxpayers

The Corps sought to justify expanding the locks based upon forecasts of dramatic growth in barge traffic on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. However, the Corps focused nearly all of its attention on the most expensive solution to barge delays caused by traffic, ordering a $1.2 billion expansion of the seven locks, instead of the cheaper alternatives of guide walls, mooring buoys, and simply scheduling the barges better in an effort to avoid congestion.

The numbers do not add up. The economic case for spending more than a billion dollars to expand the Upper Mississippi River system's locks has been heavily criticized by a cadre of independent economic experts from North Dakota State University, Iowa State University, Yale University, the University of Illinois, and Washington University. In addition, two of the Corps' own economists who managed the agency's study have documented that senior Corps officials manipulated data to justify the billion-dollar project.

Project Hurts the Environment

The project's system-wide environmental impacts have not been reviewed. The Corps has conducted no comprehensive environmental review of the cumulative impacts of operation and maintenance of the current navigation system.

Increased barge traffic from lock expansion would further erode shoreline areas, uproot and disturb aquatic vegetation and stir up sediments, which smother plants, fish and mussel habitat. Biologists warn that the existing commercial navigation system is already causing the Upper Mississippi River to slowly move towards an ecological collapse.

Contacts

• Mark Beorkrem, Mississippi River Basin Alliance, (217) 526-4480.
• Jeff Stein, American Rivers, (319) 884-4481.
• Scott Faber, Environmental Defense, (202) 387-3500 x115.
• Steve Ellis, Taxpayers for Common Sense, (202) 546-8500 x126.