Inland Waterways: Still or Turbulent Waters Ahead?

Abstract

Waterway transportation has played an important role in the history of the United States, and it continues to be important today. The federal government is responsible for building and maintaining the locks and channels that provide navigation, with funding coming partly from general revenues and partly from the fuel tax revenues deposited in the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. A current concern is that nearly half of the lock chambers in the system are over fifty years old, so the backlog of structures requiring major rehabilitation or replacement is large and growing. Expenditures from the trust fund at a rate sufficient to meet this need would deplete the fund in a matter of a few years. Other current policy issues include continued operation of tributary waterways with low traffic, continued subsidy of the water mode in the face of federal budget deficit reduction efforts, environmental effects of tow traffic, and disposal and beneficial reuse of dredged material.