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tially catastrophic disruption of our nation's industrial, energy and chemical sectors. We simply must succeed in con- vincing policymakers that the time for action is now. MN: So, you feel investment in Opera- tions and Maintenance (O&M) is the most pressing challenge facing the inland waterways industry today? DM: With 134 of 240 O&M-funded locks now over 50 years old, failure to adequately fund system maintenance is like a series of ticking time bombs waiting to explode. Unscheduled outages are becoming more frequent, and with each outage, the most serious traffic delays and idle equipment cost ranges in the millions. And this does not affect only the inland navigation industry, but also industries that rely on our system, such as power generation, fertilizer, agriculture, petrole- um, coal, and chemical companies. Although service interruptions have been manageable so far, O&M related outages will become more frequent and more severe unless we are successful in stimu- lating significant change in Washington. While we appreciate how the President's budget for FY 2007 addresses "high-per- forming" inland navigation projects, such as the Olmsted Locks and Dam, tight funding for O&M means maintenance and repair on a "fix-as-fail" basis, which is unsatisfactory. A proposed change in this year's budget is that a number of major rehabs have been transferred from the new construction/rehabilitation budget to the O&M budget. While this may seem to be a logical move, it takes scarce dollars from necessary, but less costly O&M needs, and so we prefer that the new pro- posal not be adopted. Congress and OMB need to take a longer term, more compre- hensive view of inland navigation as a system, rather than a huge collection of disparate "projects." MN: If you could have the federal gov- ernment change one policy, what would it be? DM: It would have to be our current approach to funding O&M. We need to move from a short-term, single-year, ran- dom "project" approach to a longer-term, systematic "investment" approach. Over the years, we've done a reasonably good job in removing key "pinch points" in the system by the completion of priority cap- ital projects; but O&M is a bigger chal- lenge because there are so many more projects to manage, and information about O&M expenditures is often difficult to get. If we continue on our current path, O&M funding will remain flat even as the pro- ject portfolio grows and ages. This is a recipe for disaster. Instead, we need to adopt a new process which generates funding for a 3-year or 5-year sequence of O&M projects selected on a prioritized, system-wide basis. 24 • MarineNews • June, 2006 RUBBER BUMPERS FOR VESSELS IN - STOCK D SHAPE CYLINDRICAL / BOW EXTRUDED FENDER INVENTORY SQUARE SHAPE 4” - 20” 4” - 20” 4” - 60” MARITIME INTERNATIONAL, INC PH: 866-265-5273 • Fax: 337-837-3610 Broussard, Louisiana • Maritime-international.com Email: sales@maritime-international.com • RAPID DELIVERIES • CUT TO LENGTH • HOLE DRILLING • RUBBER FENDER INVENTORY Circle 253 on Reader Service Card Whether it’s marine electric or electronics sales and service from our operations in Dutch Harbor and Seattle, or a custom engi- neered system for land or sea from UL listed panel shop, Harris Electric is ready to serve you . We do it all! Fishing Towboats Passenger Vessels Megayachts & Shipyards We do it all! Marine Electronics and Electrical Family owned and operated since 1928! Washington State Ferries with Furuno AIS provided by Harris Electric AUTHORIZED SALES & SERVICE DEALER SINCE 1984 Furuno Universal AIS Control Head HARRIS ELECTRIC, INC. MARINE ELECTRONICS • MARINE ELECTRIC Sales & Service • Contractors & Engineers Locations: Seattle 206-282-8080 • Dutch Harbor 907-581-1679 • Bristol Bay(Seasonal) Circle 233 on Reader Service Card "The most pressing challenge facing the inland waterways is the lack of adequate invest- ment in the navigational infrastructure. We as a nation need to make the investment necessary now to maintain and improve the infrastruc- ture." Pete Lilly, Chief Operating Officer CONSOL Energy Inc. "Our inland river system has always served a wide variety of interest to include flood control, hydro-electric genera- tion, industrial water supply, municipal water systems, recreations, etc. Navigation inter- ests can and have lived side by side with these other users for the most part, for generations." Tim Parker, President Parker Towing (Continued on page 51) JUNE MN2006 3(17-24).qxd 6/2/2006 10:52 AM Page 24
