The Tennessee River provides tremendous benefits and opportunities for Commercial Navigation, Recreation and the Environment throughout the Tennessee Valley Region. Recreational boaters, who according to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) contribute in excess of $20 million to the Tennessee Valley economy annually, and commercial navigation share many of the same interests that include: a safe, modern, reliable and well-maintained waterway infrastructure that preserves the environment while enhancing the quality of life for all who live in or visit the Tennessee Valley.

Navigation Locks at the nine mainstream dams on the Tennessee River have served the region since the systems’ completion in the 1940’s. This valuable waterway infrastructure allows commercial tows, and recreational craft of all shapes and sizes, year round access to the 652 mile-long mainstream channel of the Tennessee River, and its numerous tributaries, that stretches from above Knoxville, Tennessee through North Alabama and on to Paducah, Kentucky where the it meets the Ohio River.

Primarily built to enhance commerce and used extensively by recreational boaters, many of the Tennessee River’s aging navigation locks are near or beyond their design life. Completed in 1940, the Chickamauga Lock near Chattanooga, Tennessee is at an increasing risk of failure due to an Alkali Aggregate Reaction (concrete growth). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and TVA have conducted feasibility studies that indicate the risk of catastrophic failure increases dramatically beyond 2010, and at some point will force the TVA to permanently close the Chickamauga Lock to all waterway traffic out of concerns for safety.

In addition to locking through 4,050 recreational vessels in 2009, that makes it the highest volume lock for recreation on the Tennessee River System, the Chickamauga Lock provides access to 318 miles of commercially navigable waterways that serve as a vital transportation artery critical to the economy of east Tennessee and the entire Tennessee Valley Region.

Commodities that pass through the Chickamauga Lock have origins or destinations in 17 states and travel an average of 1,400 miles. The eventual closure of the lock will have impacts in the heartland of America and beyond, making the Chickamauga Lock Replacement important to not only east Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Region, but also to a large portion of the nation served by its 12,000 mile interconnected Inland Waterway Transportation System.

In 2005, preparation was begun for construction of a replacement lock that is to be built adjacent to the existing deteriorating structure. A cofferdam enclosure necessary to facilitate lock construction is scheduled for completion later this year and at that time; work at Chickamauga will be suspended for at least a decade. Funds for continued construction are not included in the President’s FY2011 Budget, and revenues of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund that are derived from the current diesel fuel tax of 20 cents per gallon paid by the commercial towing industry, are not sufficient to pay the 50 percent of construction costs for planned improvements and rehabilitation of the nations’ navigation infrastructure.

In a budget year when many of his colleagues in Congress are not requesting funding for projects in their states, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander has courageously acknowledged the constitutionally mandated responsibility of Congress in the budget process stating, “When Tennesseans contact me about projects in Tennessee, it is not my job to give them the President’s phone number.” Senator Alexander has requested $26 million in the FY2011 Federal Budget to insure continued construction without suspension of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project.

Tennessee’s Senior Senator has also expressed strong support for recommendations of the Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy (IMTS-CIS). Consisting of members of the Inland Waterways Users Board and high-ranking officials of the USACE, a “White Paper Working Group” has worked for one year to develop the reforms that are also supported by U.S. Senators Corker (TN), Shelby (AL) and McConnell (KY) in the Tennessee Valley Region, the Tennessee River Valley Association (TRVA) and the commercial towing industry.

Key recommendations include: preservation of the 50 percent federal and 50 percent industry cost-sharing formula; prioritization of USACE Projects and improvement of the Corps’ ability to deliver projects on time and on budget; and increasing the fuel tax from the current 20 cents per gallon, to as much as 29 cents per gallon as needed to provide $110 million annually from the towing industry to fund navigation improvements and construction, thereby ensuring the timely completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement.

The Tennessee River Valley Association encourages support for U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s efforts in Congress on behalf of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project. In addition, Congress should immediately enact legislation that will implement the recommendations of IMTS-CIS that will not only assure the timely completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project, but will also provide a reliable funding source for future waterway infrastructure development and improvements throughout the nation.

These efforts will ensure the Tennessee River continues to provide the benefits and opportunities to Commercial Navigation, Recreation and the Environment that make vital contributions to the economy and quality of life in the Tennessee Valley Region.

Background:

The Bush and Obama Administrations have repeatedly proposed a lockage fee to replace the diesel fuel tax paid by commercial users of the nations’ inland waterways. The waterways industry, related trade associations, and the U.S. Congress have opposed this new tax citing the inequities of levying such fees on only waterways that rely on locking segments of their systems. Revenues of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund derived from the current fuel tax of 20 cents per gallon are not sufficient to pay the 50 percent of construction costs for planned improvements and rehabilitation of navigation structures.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working with representatives of the towing industry for more than one year, have completed an “Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy” (IMTS-CIS). That effort explored a more comprehensive solution to not only address cost sharing revenue generation, but to establish investment priorities and to improve project delivery that will shorten completion schedules and control escalation of project costs. The Inland Waterways Users Board (IWUB) unanimously approved the following recommendations of IMTS-CIS during a meeting on April 13, 2010 in Washington DC.

Key Recommendations:

The IWUB proposes an investment strategy of $380 million annually over a 20-year period of which $320 million would be for new construction and $60 million for major rehabilitation of locks. Included is a management reserve of $30 million. This recommended investment plan compares to unconstrained program needs of $900 million annually over the same time period. The proposed plan emphasizes completion of on-going projects, including the Chickamauga Lock Replacement and the Kentucky Lock Addition, and reflects a prioritization of competing project needs based on economic return and risk and reliability factors, including dam safety. This funding strategy maintains the 50/50 cost sharing formula, but includes significant changes in other current policies including:

-New lock construction and major rehabs costing less than $100 million would be 100% federally funded.

-Costs related to dam improvements would also be 100% federally funded since these structures serve many beneficiaries.

-Additional trust fund revenues would be raised to support this plan by increasing the current diesel fuel tax by 30% to 45% (6 to 9 cents per gallon) as needed.

-Based on these changes, the $380 million annual program would result in $270 million in federal funds and $110 million in tax revenues.

-Caps would be placed on project costs, beyond which users (trust fund revenues) would not be responsible for overruns; and,

-Lessons learned, where appropriate, would be applied from the Corps’ military construction program as well as other means to improve project delivery.

A major component of the IWUB strategy is to initiate measures that would facilitate more cost-effective uses of available funding by minimizing protracted construction delays that result in unnecessary added costs and benefits foregone.

Fundamental to the success of this investment strategy is the premise that those projects under construction would be fully funded based on need capabilities and those funds be efficiently utilized by the Army Corps’ of Engineers.

Tennessee River Valley Association and Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council Position:

The Tennessee River Valley Association and Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council endorses the concepts of the Inland Waterways Users Board Capital Investment Strategy Team’s new program that completes on-going projects, including the Chickamauga Lock Replacement and the Kentucky Lock Addition, and provides a reliable funding source for future waterway development and improvements. The TRVA recommends the Congress enact legislation that will immediately implement these needed changes in policy.

Adopted April 30, 2010

During World War II, the Atlantic Intracostal Waterway functioned as a critical transportation route for military supplies bound for Europe, secure from the threat posed by German U-boats that patrolled off the Atlantic coast. At the same time, the Tennessee River provided navigation to the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee, a facility that was integral to the success of the Manhattan Project. The 1960’s saw components of the Saturn V, the vehicle that successfully carried the first man to the moon, transported by barge to and from design and test facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

One current example of the nations’ waterways valuable contributions to America’s national security and defense is their efficient use by the Delta Mariner. Designed and built to safely transport sensitive high value cargo on both inland rivers and open oceans, the 312 feet long by 85 feet wide 8,000 horsepower Mariner is the largest vessel to operate on America’s Inland Waterway System. The Delta Mariner transports Atlas and Delta rocket components that are too large to efficiently transport by highway or rail, and are critical to the nations’ space program and national security. Common Booster Cores that propel payloads into orbit are shipped from the United Launch Alliance 1.5 million square feet assembly facility on the Tennessee River in Decatur, Alabama to launch sites in Florida and California via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

During its voyages, the Mariner efficiently transits four navigation locks on the Tennessee River and two on the Ohio. Once in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mariner is capable of transiting the Panama Canal in route to launch facilities on the Pacific Ocean at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, or navigating around the Florida Peninsula to deliver its “most valuable cargo in the world” to Cape Canaveral on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

The Tennessee River Valley Association is engaged in an effort that encourages Members of Congress and their staff to visit United Launch Alliance in Decatur, Alabama where they can learn more about the nations’ launch vehicles and their capabilities, and when available, tour the versatile Delta Mariner. The TRVA goal is to raise lawmaker awareness of the role America’s Inland Waterways play as an important mode of transportation that continues to make valuable contributions to America’s national security and defense.

A RESOLUTION to call upon the Governors and Congressional Delegations of the

Seven-state Tennessee Valley Authority Region to make it known to federal policy

Makers and to their colleagues in the United States Congress of their support for

Legislation that will provide funding to continue without suspension, construction

through completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project on the Tennessee River.

Whereas, the Tennessee River System serves as an integral component in our Nation’s 11,000 mile interconnected Inland Waterway Transportation System and contributes to the national security of the United States; and

Whereas, the 652 miles of commercially navigable waterway provides tremendous economic benefits and opportunities to communities throughout the seven-state Tennessee Valley Authority Region, the Tennessee River Valley and the entire Southeastern United States; and

Whereas, the Chickamauga Lock near Chattanooga, Tennessee serves as a critical component of the Tennessee River System providing access to 318 miles of commercially navigable waterway, the Department of Energy facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and two Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power generation facilities that serve the region; and

Whereas, commodities passing through the Chickamauga Lock have origins or destinations in 17 states in the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions and travel an average of 1,400 miles impacting economies and industries throughout the United States; and

Whereas, the volume of freight traversing the Chickamauga Lock if displaced would require in excess of 100,000 truckloads annually on already overcrowded highway systems in the region; and

Whereas, the approximately 2 million tons of freight that annually on average pass through the Chickamauga Lock is forecasted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grow to approximately 11.3 million tons by 2060; and

Whereas, recreational boaters use the lock at a rate of 6-to-1 over commercial vessels and in 2008 3,985 recreational craft locked through making the Chickamauga Lock the second busiest lock for recreation on the entire Ohio River system; and

Whereas; the project’s average annual benefits are $5.7M and through FY2009 expenditures by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have totaled $173M resulting in a significant federal investment in the project to date; and

Whereas; current and projected funding levels of the Inland Waterway Trust Fund will require construction to be suspended in the summer of 2010 for more than a decade only to resume construction when Trust Fund resources become available; and

Whereas; feasibility studies by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have found that as a result of an alkali aggregate reaction (concrete growth), the risk of possible catastrophic failure of the existing lock that has been in service since 1940 increases dramatically beyond 2010; and

Whereas; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has notified the Tennessee Valley Authority to begin the planning process for the permanent closure of the existing Chickamauga Lock to protect the public downstream of the project and Tennessee Valley Authority’s investment in other features of the project.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, By the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments that we call upon the Governors and Congressional Delegations of the seven-state Tennessee Valley Authority Region to make it known to federal policy makers and to their colleagues in the United States Congress their support for legislation that will provide funding to continue without suspension, construction through completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project on the Tennessee River.

APPROVED THIS 27^TH DAY OF January, 2010

Downloadable Version CAWA AL Res

A Resolution

Whereas, the Tennessee River System serves as an integral component in our Nation’s 11,000 mile interconnected Inland Waterway Transportation System and contributes to the national security of the United States; and

Whereas, the 652 miles of commercially navigable waterway provides tremendous economic benefits and opportunities to communities throughout North Alabama, the Tennessee River Valley and the entire Southeastern United States; and

Whereas, the Chickamauga Lock near Chattanooga, Tennessee serves as a critical component of the Tennessee River System providing access to 318 miles of commercially navigable waterway, the Department of Energy facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and two Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power generation facilities that serve the region; and

Whereas, commodities passing through the Chickamauga Lock have origins or destinations in 17 states in the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions and travel an average of 1,400 miles impacting economies and industries throughout the United States; and

Whereas, the volume of freight traversing the Chickamauga Lock if displaced would require in excess of 100,000 truckloads annually on already overcrowded highway systems in the region; and

Whereas, the approximately 2 million tons of freight that annually on average pass through the Chickamauga Lock is forecasted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grow to approximately 11.3 million tons by 2060; and

Whereas, recreational boaters use the lock at a rate of 6-to-1 over commercial vessels, and in 2008 3,985 recreational craft locked through making the Chickamauga Lock the second busiest lock for recreation on the entire Ohio River system; and

Whereas; the project’s average annual benefits are $5.7M and through FY2009 federal expenditures by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have totaled $173M resulting in a considerable investment in the project to date; and

Whereas; current and projected funding levels of the Inland Waterway Trust Fund will require construction to be suspended in the summer of 2010 for more than a decade only to resume construction when Trust Fund resources become available; and

Whereas; feasibility studies by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have found that as a result of an alkali aggregate reaction (concrete growth), the risk of possible catastrophic failure of the existing lock that has been in service since 1940 increases dramatically beyond 2010; and

Whereas; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has notified the Tennessee Valley Authority to begin the planning process for the permanent closure of the existing Chickamauga Lock to protect the public downstream of the project and Tennessee Valley Authority’s investment in other features of the project.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, By the Coalition of Alabama Waterways Associations that we call upon the Alabama Governor and Congressional Delegation to make it known to federal policy makers and to their colleagues in the United States Congress their support for legislation that will provide funding to continue without suspension, construction through completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project on the Tennessee River.

Adopted January 5, 2010 by the Coalition of Alabama Waterways Associations

Alabama State Port Authority

Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association

Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council

Tennessee River Valley Association

Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Council

Tri-River Waterway Development Association

Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway Association

Hoey – IMTS Capital Inv Strategy 12-15-2009

Inland Waterways Users Board Endorses Recommendations of the Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy Team (White Paper Working Group)

At their final meeting of 2009, the Inland Waterways Users Board (IWUB) on December 15^th endorsed the recommendations of the Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy Team, commonly referred to as the “White Paper Working Group.”  The Team, a combination of Corps navigation, economics and engineering experts and Inland Waterway User Board members from industry, has been meeting regularly since the beginning of this year to draft a proposed 20-year Capital Development Plan for the Inland Waterways Navigation System which, if adopted into law, will prioritize projects across the entire system, improve the Corps’ project management and processes to deliver projects on time and on budget, and to develop a funding mechanism that is affordable and meets the needs of the system.   The Team’s plan calls for completion of the projects at Olmsted, Lower Mon, Chickamauga, Kentucky, and Inner Harbor within the 20-year plan.  The Plan also includes new starts at Lock and Dam 25 in 2011, GIWW–High Island to Brazos River, Texas in 2013, Lagrange in 2017, Greenup in 2022, Lock and Dam 22 in 2022 and Lock and Dam 24 in 2024.   The recommendations also included numerous changes to the Corps’ management and processes of delivering projects designed to result in significant efficiencies including, but not limited to: risk based cost estimates, independent external peer reviews, project management certification for Corps project managers, early contractor involvement during the design phase, IWUB concurrence on new starts, IWUB status briefings, adopting applicable concepts from the Corps’ Military Construction program, developing design centers of expertise, standardizing designs, and re-examining the use of the continuing contracts clause.  The team believes these changes will result in projects being completed on time and on budget and reduce O & M expenditures.  The Corps/Industry Team noted that a premise upon which these predictions are based is that Congress will provide funding to each project as needed to ensure on time and cost efficient construction.   The Team recommended revisions to the current cost sharing policy for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.  Under the proposal, new construction of Locks remains at 50% Federal / 50% IWTF cost share. Major Rehabs of Locks above $100 million remain at 50% Federal / 50% IWTF cost share and Major Rehabs under $100 million would be 100% Federal cost. All Dam work would be 100% Federal cost and a cost sharing cap would be implemented so that any projects that exceed the cap would thereafter be at 100% Federal cost.  The Team also recommended that the fuel tax remain as the funding mechanism for the IWTF and that the fuel tax be increased between 30% and 45% (or 6 to 9 cents) as needed to generate $110 million per year as industry’s share into the trust fund.

Again, the IWUB endorsed these recommendations and urged the Working Group to complete their final report based on the recommendations as presented on December 15^th.  The final report should be presented to the IWUB at their next meeting on April 13, 2010 in Washington.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Announces Closure Schedule for 2010 and Proposed 2011

During his presentation to the TRVA Annual Meeting, the Chief of the Nashville District’s Navigation Branch, Jeff Ross updated TRVA and guests on maintenance plans for the Tennessee and Cumberland River Systems locks in 2010-2011.  The schedule follows:

Calendar Year 2010

Fort Loudoun Lock is scheduled for closure to navigation traffic from 6:00AM on 20 April 2010, through 6:PM on 11 May 2010.

Melton Hill Lock is scheduled for closure to navigation traffic from 6:00AM on 8 June 2010, through 6:00PM on 29 June 2010.

Chickamauga Lock is schedule for closure to navigation traffic from 6:00AM on 20 July 2010, through 6:00PM on 16 August 2010.

Watts Bar Lock is scheduled for closure to navigation traffic from 6:00AM on 12 October 2010, through 6:00PM on 2 November 2010.

Calendar Year 2011 (Proposed Dates)

Chickamauga Lock 19 April through 10 May

Wheeler Auxiliary 7 June through 28 June

Wilson Auxiliary 26 July through 23 August

Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council

Resolution

Whereas, a commitment to improving the quality of life for all citizens should support continued economic development, job creation, and greater prosperity for the people of the Southeast, as well as providing for a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment; and

Whereas, during the past decade the Southeast has led the nation in the creation of new facilities and economic opportunities in the manufacturing sector in automobiles, steel, mining, energy production, shipping, and the suppliers which support these industries; and

Whereas, two major factors which have contributed to the region’s success in attracting new industry are the availability of reliable, affordable energy and dependable navigable waterway transportation; and

Whereas, the United States Congress is presently engaged in crafting legislation which will fundamentally transform the way Americans produce and consume energy, while touching nearly every major segment of the domestic and global economy; and

Whereas, many in Congress and the Administration are pushing a sweeping legislative agenda which would require up to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity to be produced by “renewable” sources, while also imposing a “cap and trade” requirement intended to slash carbon emissions by up to 80 percent; and

Whereas, such legislative proposals explicitly disallow existing hydroelectric generation and nuclear generation from being included in the definition of renewable sources, and would not give credit for clean energy sources such as additional nuclear power or clean coal technologies; and

Whereas, such proposals would have a disproportionate adverse impact on the Southeast, which relies heavily on coal-fired power plants and which does not have enough regular sunlight or sustained wind to build reliable, cost-effective solar plants or wind farms; and

Whereas, such proposals could increase the cost of energy between $800 and $2,500 per household per year, and likely result in a loss of 1.3 million to 2.3 million American jobs in manufacturing and associated industries; and

Whereas, the loss of jobs and business would also adversely impact the Southeast’s transportation sector, especially our navigable waterways which transport coal, limestone, other bulk commodities, large parts and equipment, and raw materials and finished products to and from the region’s electric generation and manufacturing plants; and

Whereas, significant increases in energy and transportation costs would have the unavoidable effect of harming the Southeast’s efforts to attract new business and industries, as well as to expand existing operations, while increasing job losses during a time of continuing economic hardship; and

Whereas, the ultimate goal of any clean energy legislation should be to improve air quality and lower atmospheric emissions by encouraging the generation of all forms of clean, dependable, efficient, and economical electric energy.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, by the Tennessee River Valley Association and the Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council that we call upon the Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee Governors and Congressional Delegations to make known to federal policy makers and to their colleagues in the United States Congress their opposition to any climate change or energy legislation which does not appropriately protect both the economic and environmental well being of the citizens of the Region; and

Be It Further Resolved, that we call upon the four states’ Governors and Congressional Delegations to insist on the inclusion of all forms of clean energy in crafting any federal energy legislation, including not just wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass, but also existing and new hydroelectric generation, existing and new nuclear generation, and clean coal technologies.

Adopted by the Membership of Tennessee River Valley Association October 20, 2009.

Chickamauga Lock Project

U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee’s 3^rd District and aggressive supporter of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project on the Tennessee River, was warmly welcomed in Gatlinburg, TN on October 20, 2009 as the keynote speaker of the Tennessee River Valley Association’s 43^rd Annual Meeting.

Introduced by retired long serving TRVA Director Jan Jones, Congressman Wamp’s presentation centered on the challenges facing completion of the new Chickamauga Lock.  “We really have our work cut-out for us, we have come a long way and frankly we have sort of defied the odds in the past through dogged determination and I think effective legislative work to get us this far” according to Wamp.

“I think we have to light a grassroots fire now, like we did years ago when Jan Jones and the TRVA, Miles Minnell and the local governments (Association of Tennessee Valley Governments), and Elaine Patterson (Olin Chemical) and the business community, the three women that frankly deserve a whole lot of credit here, really built a base of grass-roots support not just in the Tennessee Valley, but across the Southeastern United States for the necessity of doing this project. Then we built the kind of legislative teamwork that commenced construction, but we have hit a pretty large wall until the Congress of the United States and the Executive Branch does their job, doing their job means fixing the Inland Waterway Trust Fund.”

“In our legislative process there are about nine ways to skin a cat.  My report for you today though, is that we are down to about three left” according to Wamp, “the first six of the nine ways have not worked.  What the outstanding civilian side of the Corps’ has done for us is move this project as absolute far as we could given the constraints of the statutes from which they are working under.” Having used every penny available to this point to prepare for lock construction, the Corps’ will be unable to begin to pour footings in the Tennessee for the foundation due to the insolvency of the Trust Fund.

When the cofferdam contract that is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2010 is complete, the water will be pumped out, the structure will be tested for integrity and then have water returned to it and construction will be suspended until Trust Fund resources become available.  According to Gary Lowe of the Corps Headquarters in Washington, suspension of construction at Chickamauga and Kentucky Locks on the Tennessee River will last more than a decade without a meaningful solution to the Trust Fund’s insolvency.

Efforts by Wamp and Congressman Lincoln Davis of Tennessee’s 4^th District to include FY2010 funding to continue construction at Chickamauga failed in the House and Senate Energy and Water Conference Committee earlier this year.  The President’s Budget included only $1 million in funding for Chickamauga, that allows the Corps’ to finish FY2009 work on the cofferdam, testing and related work already under contract.

With the door closed on opportunities in the FY2010 Budget, the three options remaining to skin this cat, as Wamp put it, are 1) to include funding in a supplemental spending bill, 2) to include in a potential second stimulus bill that he would oppose but Congressman Davis would likely support and possibly assist in including funding for Chickamauga construction, or to 3) attach language to some other unrelated legislation. “One of these three cats skinned, and we’re back in business” Wamp stated, “but it has got to be done now, this is not a 2011 issue.”

Reliability studies have found the risk of a possible catastrophic failure of the existing lock increases significantly beyond 2010 due to deterioration from alkali aggregate reaction (concrete growth). The Tennessee Valley Authority physically owns the locks on the Tennessee River; the Corps’ has responsibilities for operation and maintenance. TVA has been instructed by the Corps’ to begin planning for the eventual permanent closure of the existing lock at Chickamauga.  “It would make no sense, it would be asinine, surely not in the greatest nation in the history of the world, surely not, they (the Congress and Administration) would not let this happen,” Wamp said.

“The first major system in the country that could shut down if we are negligent as a nation is the Chickamauga Lock, on the Tennessee River. This is not one man’s fight, this is not my project, this is America’s project and we have to make the case, and we have to light this fire all over again, and we have got to do it quick.” Closure of the existing lock will result in 181 miles of the Tennessee’s commercially navigable waterway being cut-off from the remainder of the nation’s inland waterway system.

Congressman Wamp has informed Senator Lamar Alexander of the Corps’ notification to TVA and the critical nature of this situation. Alexander could become the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Water Committee and be in a position to have influence needed to complete the Chickamauga project.  “He now knows the urgency because of TVA’s notification from the Corps’ to begin that process of the preparation, because if it closes for more than five weeks, all of those products go somewhere else, probably to stay,” according to Wamp.

“It is a challenge that we should rise to meet, all of us together, so lets light the fire again and make this a major issue.”  He called on participants to encourage support from across the Southeast and Eastern United States in Congress to support his efforts to continue funding for construction at Chickamauga Lock.

As a candidate for Governor in the State of Tennessee who will leave the House in early 2011 Wamp stated, “It is important that Senator Alexander lead this effort in the Senate and that over the next fourteen months I ramrod the House side.”  Wamp also said, “a House Member can’t really hold up the trains like a Senator can, but I am going to do everything that I can, including laying down in front of this train over the next fourteen months to get these footings poured in the middle of the Tennessee River.  We are going to move this as far as we can down the road before I leave, because it has to be done.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, TRVA Board of Directors Member Elaine Patterson presented the TRVA 2009 ‘Janice L. Jones’ Friend of the Valley Award to Congressman Wamp.  The Friend of the Valley Award is presented annually to honor an individual’s commitment and contributions to the economic health and vitality of the Tennessee and Cumberland River Valleys. TRVA is honored to have Congressman Wamp receive the prestigious award for 2009, and shares his commitment to the continued construction through completion of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement and will actively support his efforts in Congress and across the Southeastern United States.