By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer
Heavy Midwest rain sent sedi-
ment and debris down the
Mississippi River this winter, clog-
ging the lower channel and raising
the need for dredging to accommo-
date vessels. Rapid currents, along
with increased sediment, are
blamed for a string of recent acci-
dents involving ships and barges.
When sediment builds on the
Lower Mississippi, shippers are
faced with draft reductions, forcing
them to carry less cargo and forgo
revenue. A ship’s draft is the verti-
cal span from the waterline to the
bottom of the vessel’s hull.
In New Orleans, the Mississippi
crested at 17.06 feet on the
Carrollton Gauge on Jan. 16 and
was just below 14 feet last week.
“In the extended forecast, it will
fall to 12.1 feet by March 2 but
that’s a ballpark number,” said
Sean Duffy, executive director of
the New Orleans-based Big River
Coalition, which includes over
100 maritime entities.
“My biggest concern is being
able to restore or maintain federal-
ly-authorized, channel dimensions
at Southwest Pass for deep-draft
vessels,” Duffy said. Southwest
Pass in Plaquemines Parish is at
the tip of the Mississippi River
Delta. “We’ve lost six feet of draft
in the Pass as sediment builds, and
we’re coordinating with the Corps
and dredging industry for more
equipment,” he said. “We’ll lose
more draft if additional dredges
aren’t secured soon.”
At the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, “an average $102 million
spent on dredging the Lower
Mississippi in the past five years
won’t be adequate to restore channel
dimensions this year,” spokesman
Matt Roe in New Orleans said.
“Dredging is necessary now for the
current flood event, and it will be
needed for the remainder of the
high-water
season,
typically
February through June.”
The New Orleans district is wait-
ing for spending authorization for
dredging
from
Washington.
“Congress has passed the budget,
and the Army Corps headquarters is
allocating funds for projects,” Roe
said. “We expect to receive our fis-
cal 2016, work-plan amounts in the
second week of February.”
Dredging needs have grown after
the Mississippi’s record level in
January caused significant shoaling
in the river’s lower parts much earli-
er than in an average year, Army
Corps spokesman Ricky Boyett in
New Orleans said last week. Shoals
are sediment and sand deposits that
can threaten navigation.
“This shoaling will continue as
long as the river remains high,”
Boyett said. “An average year’s
funding for dredging wouldn’t
restore the channel to full, proj-
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YOUR MULTICULTURAL MEDIUM
February 8 - February 14, 2016
igh, clogged river snarls vessels, bogs down world’s top trade artery
ect dimensions of 45 feet by 750
feet between New Orleans and
Southwest Pass, and 45 feet by
600 feet in the lower part of
Southwest Pass.”
“We expect to receive this
year’s allocations for dredging
Baton Rouge to the Gulf of
Mexico in the coming days,”
Boyett said Wednesday.
The hopper-dredge Newport and
the government’s hopper-dredge
McFarland are working in
Southwest Pass now, Duffy said. A
contract for the Newport—which
is owned by Seattle-based Manson
Construction Co., with an office in
Houma—was extended by a month
to Feb. 29. The Army Corps dredge
McFarland arrived at Southwest
Pass on Jan. 22 from Philadelphia.
“We need at least four dredges
to maintain the channel and to
keep up with shoaling, which
will become harder to address as
water levels recede,” Duffy said.
“The two hoppers that the Corps
is working with in two locations
can’t keep up. We hope to keep
both pieces of equipment and to
secure a cutterhead dredge by the
end of February.” The Corps
New Orleans district pays for
these dredges out of its opera-
tions and maintenance budget.
To prevent flooding, the Army
Corps on Jan. 10 opened the
Bonnet Carre Spillway, 12 miles
west of New Orleans in St. Charles
Parish. The structure, located at
miles 128.8 to 127.3 above Head
of Passes, directs water into Lake
Pontchartrain and then out to the
Gulf. In total, 210 of the spillway’s
bays were opened.
On Jan. 25, the Corps began
closing bays, however, because
the river’s stage had dropped.
“The final bays were closed on
February 1, concluding the spill-
way’s operation for this high-
water event,” Boyett said. “The
operation lasted for three weeks,
and at its peak we diverted about
200,000 cubic feet per second
into the lake.” The spillway was
first used in 1937, and has now
been opened eleven times during
its life, but only twice in January.
Because of additional sediment,
vessels have to lighten loads,
Duffy said. “Some ships might go
to other ports instead, or they could
return here once the channel is
restored,” he said. Fast river cur-
rents have hampered barge traffic
and usage, particularly around
Mississippi’s Vicksburg Railroad
Bridge—where at least five, recent
marine accidents occurred.
In New Orleans, a section of river
was shut for nearly six hours on
Jan. 15 after a towboat hit moored
barges near the Crescent City
Connection bridge, and six of them
broke loose, Coast Guard
spokesman Ryan Tippets said.
Twenty gallons of petroleum prod-
uct spilled into the water. On Jan.
21, part of the river was closed for
twelve hours in Plaquemines
Parish after 22 barges, carrying
coal and petroleum, broke loose
and damaged three ships.
Also on Jan. 21, a towboat with
six barges hit a bridge between
Natchez, Miss., and Vidalia, La.
One of the barges leaked slurry
oil into the water. Then in a Jan.
26 collision between two tow
vessels, a barge carrying caustic
soda capsized near Hahnville in
St. Charles Parish, shutting five
miles of river temporarily.
Last Tuesday, the Cyprus-
flagged tanker Nordbay struck a
piling associated with Jefferson
Parish’s water intake, without
affecting the intake. The empty
Nordbay then struck the Spain
Street Wharf near Crescent Park
in the Bywater as it headed to th
New Orleans General Anchorage
All of these recent incidents an
their causes are under Coas
Guard investigation.
“The Mississippi is the world’
top trade artery, and blockage i
one spot causes pain in othe
parts of the navigation system,
Duffy said. “For it to work effi
ciently, we need full channe
dimensions maintained for shi
and barge movement.” Shipper
and pilots want supplies to flow
“The Associated Branch of Pilot
for the Port of New Orleans, o
Bar Pilots; the Crescent Rive
Port Pilots; the New Orleans
Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots
and the Associated Federal Pilot
are doing all they can to kee
traffic moving,” he said.
“Bar Pilots limit the drafts of al
vessels transiting Southwes
Pass, where there is significan
shoaling already,” Duffy said
They’ve kept the pass open bu
that will become harder to do a
the river gradually falls.
“People are asking when the chan
nel, which was reduced to 41 feet o
January 30, will return to its maxi
mum draft of 47 feet,” Duffy said
“We’ve made progress in securin
dredges, but we need more and ar
keeping fingers crossed that we’l
have enough equipment.”
The Army Corps in New Orleans
the agency’s Mississippi Valle
Division and its Washington head
quarters have coordinated with nav
igation leaders and the dredgin
industry to find solutions, Duff
said. “But the Army Corps ha
solicited five contract bids fo
dredges that couldn’t be awarded, o
were not bid on.” That’s because ou
of the 13 hopper dredges that ca
work the Mississippi River, each o
them was either already under con
tract or in a shipyard for work.
“We need more shovels, or els
the next draft reduction here coul
impact trade through the Panam
Canal, which has a maximum draf
of 39 feet 6 inches,” Duffy warned
“Despite tremendous efforts here
the message being heard aroun
the world is that the Mississipp
River is unreliable.” With addition
al dredges, it would still take
month or more to restore the chan
nel in Southwest Pass, he said.◊
(AP) — President Barack
Obama wants oil companies to
pay a $10 fee for every barrel of
oil to help fund investments in
clean transportation that fight
climate change.
Obama will formalize the pro-
posal Tuesday when he releases his
final budget request to Congress.
The $10-per-barrel fee is expected
to be dead on arrival for the
Republicans who control Congress
and oppose new taxes and
Obama’s energy policies.
Still, the White House hopes the
proposal will drive a debate about
the need to get energy producers to
help fund such efforts to promote
clean transportation.
The White House said the $10 fee
would be phased in over five years.
The revenue would provide $20
billion per year for traffic reduc-
tion, expanding investment in tran-
sit systems and new modes of
transportation like high-speed rail.
It would also revamp how regional
transportation systems are funded,
providing $10 billion to encourage
investment that lead to cleaner
transportation options.
The White House said the tax
would provide for the long-term
solvency of the Highway Trust
Fund to ensure the nation main-
tains its infrastructure. The added
cost of gasoline would create a
clear incentive for the private sec-
tor to reduce the nation’s reliance
on oil and drive investments in
clear energy technology.
The American Petroleum
Institute projected that the fee
would raise the cost of gasoline by
25 cents a gallon.
“At a time when oil companies
are going through the largest finan-
cial crisis in over 25 years, it
makes little sense to raise costs on
the industry,” added Neal Kirby, a
spokesman for the Independent
Petroleum Association of America.
“This isn’t simply a tax on oil com-
panies, it’s a tax on American con-
sumers who are currently benefit-
ing from low home heating and
transportation costs.
The administration said it recog-
nized that oil companies would
pass on some of the costs of the
fee. However, it noted that
Americans spend a lot of time and
money as a result of an inadequate
transportation system that also
contributes to global warming.
“Businesses waste tens of bil-
lions of dollars each year in
freight costs due to inadequate
infrastructure and Americans cur-
rently spend a total of seven bil-
lion hours stuck in traffic each
year, and traffic is getting worse
year
after
year,”
said
Transportation Secretary Anthony
Foxx. “This is the hidden tax.”◊
hite House seeks $10-per-barrel
il tax to fund clean transport
Judge rules out mentions of
deaths at BP supervisor’s trial
(AP) — Eleven men died in the
010 rig explosion that led to BP’s
Gulf oil spill, but a jury will hear
about only four during a rig super-
visor’s trial this month.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood
Duval Jr. ruled Wednesday that the
deaths aren’t relevant to the case
now that federal prosecutors have
dropped manslaughter charges
against Robert Kaluza.
If the case goes to trial Feb. 16,
uval said he will inform jurors
bout the deaths of four workers
Dewey Revette, Jason
nderson, Donald Clark, and
tephen Curtis — because they
articipated in a key safety test
hortly before the explosion.
“Thus, there is potential for the
ury to engage in speculation as to
hy these individuals have not been
alled to testify,” Duval wrote.
Prosecutors say Kaluza and
nother rig supervisor, Donald
idrine, botched the “negative
ressure test” and missed clear
April 2010 well blowout, which
spewed millions of gallons of oil
into the Gulf of Mexico.
Kaluza’s attorneys had asked
Duval to exclude evidence or men-
tions of any of the 11 deaths during
the trial. Prosecutors argued they
should be allowed to present “a
complete picture of the facts.”
Kaluza is charged with one count
of violating the Clean Water Act.
Vidrine pleaded guilty to the same
misdemeanor charge in December
after prosecutors dropped the
felony manslaughter charges.
Keith Jones, whose son, Gordon
Jones, died in the Deepwater
Horizon rig explosion, has
expressed frustration with the
Justice Department’s decision to
abandon the more serious charges.
But the Baton Rouge attorney said
it doesn’t bother him that jurors
won’t hear about his son, who
“wouldn’t care about that.”
“What does bug me is that every-
body talks only about the negative
that was the only thing that went
wrong,” Jones said.
Six other workers —Aaron Dale
“Bubba”
Burkeen,
Karl
Kleppinger Jr., Keith Blair
Manuel, Shane M. Roshto, Adam
Weise and Roy Wyatt Kemp —
also died in the blast.
Duval’s order last week
excludes other evidence from the
trial, including an email
exchange between Kaluza and a
friend after the explosion.
“It was a very exciting night
when we all had to get off the
drilling rig in the middle of the
ocean at night with the rig explod-
ing!!!” Kaluza wrote. “I helped get
people into the life boats, then got
in the lifeboat myself. Exciting
night!!! but also a very sad night
because some died.”
Prosecutors said the exchange
demonstrates Kaluza had a cava-
lier attitude about the disaster, but
Duval agreed with Kaluza’s
lawyers that it would be “unfairly
