Water transportation keeps commerce moving with a lower societal cost!

Illinois Corn has been working to upgrade our lock and dam system for years.  Not only is a vibrant water transportation system vital for Illinois farmers, but it is key to reducing the carbon footprint of our product and that of so many other goods currently transported into and out of Illinois.

Ensuring Cleaner Air

Inland waterways transport generates fewer emissions than rail or truck.

The emission comparison between inland towing, rail and truck transportation shows that fewer air pollutants are generated by moving products on American’s inland navigation system.

Saving Energy

Transporting freight by water is the most energy-efficient choice.

The most energy-efficient way to move commodities such as coal, grain, iron, steel, aggregates, petroleum and chemical products is to use the nation’s navigable rivers.  Barges can move one ton of cargo 576 miles per gallon of fuel.  A rail car would move the same ton of cargo 413 miles, and a truck only 155 miles.

Protecting Communities

Inland waterways transport moves hazardous materials safely.

All transport modes work hard to prevent accidents, human errors and other causes of spills, including groundings in the case of barge transportation.  Overall, spill rates are very low – with trucks losing only 6.06 gallons per one million ton-miles, rail cars only 3.86 gallons and barges 3.6 gallons per one million ton-miles.

For more information on how waterways work for America and for Illinois, click here or here. 

Legislative Challenges 

Our most recent legislative challenge in getting funding and approval for new locks and dams on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers is the lack of progress we’ve been able to show for the funding we’ve already received.  This portion of the projects are handled by the Army Corps of Engineers.  In addition, Congress wants to see that industry is willing to bear some of the costs of upgrades and new starts before agreeing to provide additional funding.

To this end, industry personel, interest groups, and the Army Corps of Enginners sat down to discuss what could be done.  This white paper adequately describes the new proposal for funding and prioritization of projects to make our upgraded water transportation system a reality.

WHAT’S ALL THIS I HEAR ABOUT ASIAN CARP?

The State of Michigan seeks to force the State of Illinois to take immediate steps to prevent the invasion of Asian Carp into Lake Michigan.  One of the steps is to close the O’Brien Lock and the Chicago Lock.  Obviously, this would have massive effects for agriculture.

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce offered an affidavit on this issue that is very informative.  The effects on agriculture listed here are, in short:

• Grain pricing by the Chicago Board of Trade is reliant on the benchmarks derived from two facilities that depend on grain being shipped through the O’Brien Lock.
• Farmers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and even North Dakota would have to find other means for shipping their grain.
• The closure could cost the corn industry as much as $567 million per year because without the O’Brien Lock, barges cannot be repositioned to grain elevators between Chicago and Peoria.

The Chemical Industry Council of Illinois submitted comments on what they believe the impact to agriculture is, they can be found here.