Well Maintained Waterway Infrastructure Critical

U.S. farmers need a well-maintained waterways system to continue to meet export demand. With 60 percent of grain exports moving down the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, The National Corn Growers Association says improving the lock and dam system is critical for agriculture. Ken Hartman is the chair of NCGA’s Market Access Action Team. He says the current system is outdated.
Hartman: “The major lock system that was actually built in the 1930s surpassed their design and lifespan of what they originally planned on. There are 600 foot locks which today the tows are 1,200 feet. So in order to get those barges through that lock they actually have to split those tows and take 600 foot tows at a time through and then put them back together. There're very small and not big enough for what we have today.”
Hartman says it’s time to upgrade the system.
Hartman: “Our goal is to get a lock started on the Mississippi River and a lock started on the Illinois River and then we need to follow through with new locks that get them from the 600 feet to 1,200 feet and get them mechanically operating of technology today not working on technology of the 1930s. Farmers through communities in the United States need to talk to their Congressmen and their Senators and stress how important these locks are for exports. A lot of our new customers are overseas and a lot of our grain goes down these rivers. So we definitely need to stress to these congressmen that we need to get appropriations to start working on these locks.”