U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp Pledges Continued Support for Chickamauga Lock
U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp Pledges Continued Support for
Chickamauga Lock Project
U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee’s 3rd 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 43rd 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 4th 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.
