Review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Restructured Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Feasibility Study Second Report (2004) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway System
2 The Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway System
Pages 16-27
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From page 16... ...
Environmental goods and services provided by the UMR-IWW's river-floodplain ecosystem include drinking water (the Mississippi River supplies drinking water to numerous cities and towns) , hundreds of thousands of jobs related to recreation and tourism, and billions of dollars of revenues generated by residents and by visitors who travel to enjoy the region's natural and aesthetic resources.
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From page 17... ...
The Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway systems have long supported this wide variety of human and economic uses, and different users of these systems have had various and changing effects on one another. Nineteenth century steamboats on the Upper Mississippi, for example, had few large impacts on river ecology; in fact, given the problems posed to the steamboats by snags, currents, and shifting sandbars during the steamboating era, the river system may have had more impacts on navigation activities rather than vice versa (Merrick, 2001, provides an account of mid-nineteenth century Upper Mississippi River steamboating)
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From page 18... ...
In the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River systems, finding management regimes that provide the greatest return to society entails not only consideration of these multiple linkages, but also collaboration between federal, state, and local agencies, numerous nongovernmental organizations, and citizens. These relationships and the management structures that have been developed to address them fall under the rubric of "integrated river management." The following section discusses the concept and previous embodiments of "integrated" river and water management, and how the concept relates to UMR-IWW system management.
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From page 19... ...
For example, a panel of experts appointed by the United Nations (1958) interpreted integrated river basin development as "the orderly marshalling of water resources of river basins of multiple purposes to promote human welfare." In another
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From page 20... ...
Created during the Franklin Roosevelt administration in 1933, the TVA sought to promote rural development in the Tennessee River Valley and nearby regions through water resources development, especially hydroelectric power generation. The middle of the twentieth century saw the creation of several federal interagency river basin commissions, known as "FIARBC" programs.
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From page 21... ...
Nevertheless, despite the financial, institutional, technical, and social challenges posed by integrated river and water management, the rationale for comprehensive management of water and related sectors across space and time remains compelling. The experience with integrated water and river management in the United States and around the world is exceptionally broad, and caution must be used in trying to distill lessons from the diversity of settings in which it has been applied.
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From page 22... ...
The following section examines more specific issues that may merit consideration in promoting integrated planning and management of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River system. INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER-ILLINOIS WATERWAY The complexities in a study of Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway shipping and the navigation industry represent analytical challenges to the Corps because of the vast extent of areas affected by this system, and because of the various economic sectors related to the system.
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From page 23... ...
Integrating river management decisions across an area the size of the Mississippi River basin and its vast number of states and water management organizations represents a daunting task. Nevertheless, failure to address key water quality and quantity relationships adequately in a basin-wide context may contribute to excessive resource degradation and other problems.
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From page 24... ...
The Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Feasibility Study As mentioned, the Corps has expanded the scope of the feasibility study since the early 1990s, broadening it from a focus on the navigation system to more fully consider other sectors -- especially river ecology and measures designed to improve ecosystem productivity. The study thus currently contains
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From page 25... ...
Navigation system management options would thus not only be considered in terms of direct economic costs and benefits to the commercial shipping sector, but would also recognize that operation of the navigation project has implications for river ecology and may thus entail "costs" to ecology and related sectors, such as ecotourism. A well-integrated study would, for example, consider a broad range of potential trade-offs between commercial navigation, river ecology, and other sectors such as recreational boating and floodplain management.
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From page 26... ...
It is proposed that an integrated plan be approved as a frame work for modifications and operational changes to the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway System to provide for navigation efficiency and environmental sus tainability, and to add ecosystem restoration as an authorized project purpose. The integrated plan will provide better focus and flexibility to adaptively manage the operation and mainte nance of the system for both navigation and the environ ment.
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From page 27... ...
Congress, the Corps will be hindered both in its ability to fully integrate navigation, ecology, and other appropriate considerations in the UMR-IWW feasibility study and in its efforts at integrated, balanced management of the UMRIWW system. The Corps' efforts to seek broader authority for planning and implementing projects on the UMR-IWW system are appropriate.
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