Planning for a major river transportation closure
Farm and Ranch December 21, 2009 A lot of grain moves down the Columbia-Snake River system for export but for several months beginning in late 2010 that won’t be possible. The river transportation system will be closed so major repairs can be made to several locks. Federal stimulus funding is making the work possible at this time. The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association represents river users and its director of government affairs, Kristin Meira, says the organization has been involved in planning for the river closure. Meira: “We have been working for a number of months now to really ramp up the communications effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is charged with actually maintaining these navigation projects and doing the major improvements at the projects. Working with them to relay information out to the grower community, out to the ports, tow boaters, all the folks that rely on the inland Columbia-Snake River System. So far that communication effort is going fairly well but there are always more folks to touch. I want to make sure that everyone understands that the system will have this closure from December 2010 to March 2011.” Meira says despite the short term pain of the closure it will make for a more reliable transportation system into the future. She sees the federal funding for this work as an added vote of confidence by the administration and congress in the value of the inland river transportation system. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
