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www.marinelink.com MN 29 What recent or pending legislation will have the most significant impact on your business? RICK CALHOUN, CHAIRMAN, WATERWAYS COUNCIL, INC. As Chairman of Waterways Council, Inc., the number one legislative priority is to see the Inland Waterways Capital Development Plan (CDP) move forward as part of a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). The CDP is a consensus-based plan that was developed over an 18-month period by the Inland Waterways Users Board, on which I serve, and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prioritize navigation projects on the inland system and define a way to efficiently fund them over the next two decades. This new plan would require the indus- try to increase the tax it currently pays into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by 35 to 45%. While never an easy decision to raise taxes in an uncertain fiscal environment, the industry supports this as a way to fix the current bro- ken, inefficient model for constructing navigation proj- ects. If passed, the legislation will allow 25 projects to be built over 20 years versus just six over the same period under the current system. JOHN ARNOLD WITTE, JR., EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, DONJON New and changing regulations by the federal, state and local governments cover such wide ranging issues as crew training, equipment maintenance, vessel inspec- tions and office support/record keeping to name a few. In my view, the most important legislation recently passed is the final implementation of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. As a result of the Exxon Valdez casualty in 1989, the fed- eral government enacted OPA-90 to ensure that there are sufficient response assets to deal with any maritime casu- alty. With the protection of our environment a top prior- ity, the final implementation of OPA-90 provides support, not subsidy, to the true professional U.S. marine salvage community. Among numerous emergency response requirements, OPA-90 requires that owners/operators of all tank vessels that transit U.S. waters have an agreement in place with a professional and experienced salvor in the event of a casualty. OPA-90 does not require that vessel owners/operators subsidize the marine salvage communi- ty, only that they must contract with a professional salvor in the event of a casualty rather than a “yellow pages” salvor who chooses to try to respond without the experi- ence, equipment and personnel necessary to mitigate the problem. OPA-90 has provided the support necessary to allow professionally trained marine salvors to continue to be financially viable today and into the future. CHARLES JONES, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, AMHERSTMADISON The river transportation industry is currently suffering from over regulation and in addition we are faced with the imposition of what is known as Sub- Chapter M certainly by the end of 2012. This, plus the emissions standards of the EPA which are currently in place and will be imposed on the grandfathered main propulsion engines in towboats will have a significant impact on our business. The brown water transportation industry in most cases is not profitable enough to do the hull work and purchase new engines to comply with these new standards.
