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Regular Session, 2011
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 173
BY REPRESENTATIVE KLECKLEY
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To memorialize the United States Congress and the President of the United States to take
such actions as are necessary to provide adequate funding for essential dredging
activities and removal of navigational hazards in the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
WHEREAS, dredging in the federal navigation channel on the Calcasieu Ship
Channel has been underfunded for years and the current and proposed federal budgets
continue to underfund critically needed dredging on the Calcasieu Ship Channel where
shoaling in some reaches of the channel has reduced the channel width from four hundred
feet to one hundred seventy-five feet; and
WHEREAS, a large metal pipe of unknown origin is obstructing the Calcasieu Bar
Channel and the New Orleans District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers does
not have the funds to remove this hazard to navigation as is its duty under federal law and
regulation; and
WHEREAS, shippers, pilots, and other maritime interests that depend on the
Calcasieu Ship Channel to move cargo and keep commerce flowing at the eleventh largest
port in the United States are extremely concerned that the Corps does not have adequate
resources on hand to remove the obstruction or to maintain the channel or mitigate the
induced channel shoaling that satellite imagery clearly shows is caused by sediment being
carried to the Calcasieu Ship Channel by Gulf of Mexico currents from the record flood on
the Atchafalaya River; and
WHEREAS, in a year where the New Orleans District of the Army Corps of
Engineers is faced with inadequate funding to address the record amount of sediment on all
channels under its jurisdiction, the record-breaking flood experienced during the spring of
2011 has impacted channels, such as the Calcasieu Ship Channel, which are outside of the
directly impacted rivers; and ENROLLEDHCR NO. 173
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WHEREAS, the New Orleans District has no funding left to dredge the Calcasieu
Ship Channel through the remainder of this fiscal year, which results in a thirty million
dollar "best estimate" funding shortfall based on present and future dredging and hazard
removal needs; and
WHEREAS, emergency funding for the remainder of the federal fiscal year would
enable the restoration and maintenance of this critical waterway for trade and would allow
the approximately fifty-four million tons of international cargo that moves through the
Calcasieu Ship Channel to flow unimpeded; and
WHEREAS, the supply chain of waterborne traffic that moves through this critical
energy port is essential to the economy of the United States with cargoes of particular
importance being energy and chemical cargoes as well as manufacturing goods; and
WHEREAS, refineries along the Calcasieu Ship Channel depend on unimpeded
navigational access to receive petroleum shipments; and
WHEREAS, if the maximum draft of the Calcasieu Ship Channel is reduced to less
than forty feet it will negatively impact all of the above listed traffic; and
WHEREAS, the recovering United States economy has started to finally generate
optimism with investors and shippers, and the country cannot afford to have a crucial piece
of our transportation infrastructure handicapped with a possible reduction of the volume of
products that can be exported from the United States. at the same time that President Obama,
in 2010, set a goal of doubling exports by 2014; and
WHEREAS, direct federal revenue from the Calcasieu Ship Channel is more than
seven hundred fifty million dollars and the benefit to the United States economy as a whole
is much greater, but the Corps' only hope of maintaining the channel at the necessary width
and depth is to promptly receive additional funds for such purposes which would also allow
them to respond to the increased demand for dredging and obstruction removal; and
WHEREAS, the federal government's Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which is
supported solely by a tax on cargo to provide funds to dredge the nation's ports and harbors,
has a surplus of over five billion dollars, making the money necessary to dredge and remove
the obstruction from the Calcasieu Ship Channel readily available; and ENROLLEDHCR NO. 173
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WHEREAS, it is important to know that failure to respond now will have severe
economic impact on the entire country and could result in unprecedented price increases for
the goods and services that are dependent on this waterway for transportation to markets; and
WHEREAS, it is essential that Congress pass an emergency supplemental bill to
address the high water fight along the Mississippi and other rivers, including thirty million
dollars to maintain the Calcasieu Ship Channel at its fully authorized and unobstructed
channel dimensions of four hundred feet wide by forty feet deep.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to provide
adequate funding for essential dredging activities and removal of navigational hazards on
the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
United States of America and the President of the United States and to each member of the
Louisiana congressional delegation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE