Special Report

Private funding considered for lock improvement

The Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) is pushing a legislative plan to make private resources available for work on waterway infrastructure. The Water Infrastructure Now Public-Private Partnership Act would create a pilot program to explore public-private partnerships to expedite upgrades to locks and dams along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, according to a news release issued Friday by ISA.

Illinois soybean grower David Hartke says that five years ago he would not have favored private money to upgrade waterway infrastructure, but his feelings on using strictly public funds have changed.

“I don’t see where we can find this money to do this kind of work,” said Hartke, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News at the Farm Progress Show last week, “but if we could bring privatized funds in and have, you know, especially along the Mississippi, a toll-booth, if you will, at every lock, I think you’d have a lot better opportunity to get those kinds of fundings through and those projects completed.”

Farmers who depend on inland waterway shipping have been trying for years for passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that would fund publicly improvements to waterway shipping infrastructure. The larger locks are needed to accommodate longer barge tows on those waterways, according to Hartke.

“With tugboats today and the size of these barge tugs we can put together, we ought to be able to handle twice the size tug that we can put together today on the Mississippi,” said Hartke, who farms at Teutopolis, Illinois, “but we’re many, many, many, years off of having that capability.”

According to the Illinois Soybean Association, the partnerships would expedite projects and save taxpayers money by leveraging private sector funding and other resources to develop infrastructure.

At a news conference in Peoria Thursday, Illinois Soybean Association Director Rob Shaffer joined Senator Dick Durbin and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. Shaffer told the lawmakers that Illinois soybean farmers look forward to working with Congress to enact the Water Resources Development Act in 2013.

AUDIO: David Hartke (3 min. MP3)