DELEGATION RELEASES GAO REPORT, SAYS IT SHOWS MANAGEMENT OF MISSOURI RIVER MISGUIDED

North Dakota delegation releases report showing insubstantial shipping industry; says existing water policy hurts North Dakota industries

Thursday, January 15, 2009

CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or  Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today by Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Congressman Earl Pomeroy shows that barge traffic on the lower Missouri River has shriveled up to the point of being inconsequential. The North Dakota congressional delegation said the report strengthens the case that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must start managing the Missouri River in a way that reflects the economic value of the current use of the river.

The GAO report showed that a staggering 84 percent of the barge shipments on the lower Missouri River represent shipments of low-value commodities, sand and gravel. Over 90 percent of those shipments are less than 10 miles in length.

“This report is jaw-dropping with respect to the size and type of barge shipping on the lower Missouri,” said Senator Dorgan, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “For the Corps of Engineers to release critically needed water in the upstream dams to support a barge industry that’s largely moving sand and gravel just a few miles is thoroughly ridiculous. In the midst of an extended drought that has done significant damage to recreation, tourism and fishing in the upstream states, the Corps’ management of the river favors a minnow of an industry downstream at the expense of a whale of an industry upstream. That’s wrong-headed and I’m going to keep pushing to change it. This report will give us much-needed ammunition for that purpose.”

“I have long been concerned with how the Corps controls the flow of the Missouri River. This report is only further evidence of their gross mismanagement. It makes no sense for the minuscule downstream barge business to benefit at the expense of North Dakota’s upstream communities,” Senator Conrad says. “We need to chart a new course for the Missouri, one that puts a priority on protecting our communities.”

"This GAO report confirms what we have always known - the so-called downstream barge industry is practically nonexistent," said Congressman Pomeroy. "It is time for the Corps to start putting North Dakota's drinking water needs and the interests or our state’s recreation industries ahead of the nearly extinct downstream barge industry."

The GAO report shows that the shipping industry on the Missouri River is a small fraction of the size of shipping on the Mississippi River. Of the 108 million tons moved on the Missouri River between 1994 and 2006, 91.3 million tons consisted of low-value commodities such as sand and gravel that was mined from the river and shipped short distances to distribution points on-shore.

Fifty-four percent of the sand and gravel is shipped less than one mile on the river, and fully 99 percent are shipped less than 10 miles by water.

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