No Carp(ing): Senate approves waterway projects

Posted by Jim Tankersley at 12:10 pm CDT

Illinois shipping lanes would get $4 billion in improvements, Rockford would get a $5 million buffer against flooding and the Great Lakes would get more protection against dreaded Asian Carp, under a massive waterways bill the Senate approved this week.

The Water and Resources Development Act was overshadowed in yesterday's news cycle by proposed amendments - which concerned not water or resources or development, but Iraq war funding - that didn’t even make it onto the bill.

But the act, which now heads to a conference committee to iron out differences between its House and Senate versions - carries big-ticket projects for Illinois.

Among them: $2.2 billion to upgrade locks and dams along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers and $1.7 billion to restore their ecosystems; $256 million for other navigation measures along the rivers; $5 million to spruce up the Alpine Dam in Rockford, where at least 350 homes and 50 businesses sit on a flood plain; and authorization for federal funding to complete a barrier project designed to keep invasive Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes.

“Passing WRDA will mean over 50,000 new jobs for the region, shorter shipping times, and improved business for Midwest producers along the river,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said in a press release. “The Mississippi River transports $12 billion worth of products every year, affecting agriculture, commercial, and labor interests across the state. It is important to update and modernize the waterway to remain competitive in the years to come.”