Texas Ports - Value to the Nation

Editor's Notes

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• #6: The Texas Coast is where our Nation has chosen to invest in large refinery capacity….is not cost-feasible to invest again to build it elsewhere…it is good Value for the Nation to modernize and rehabilitate our Texas navigation channels to allow the Nation to continue realizing the economic benefits of this National Transportation and Refinery infrastructure investment and reality.Links to Nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve – storage and inlet/outlet terminals
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• #12: To remain competitive in a changing global trade market, the U.S. would need to continue making the justified investments necessary to maintain and improve its navigation transportation infrastructure where it is appropriate and efficient to do so. Understanding the current funding challenges and making long-term plans for operations and maintenance (O&M) and justified investments are critical to developing an effective vision for a competitive navigation system. USACE Civil
• #13: Coastal ports • Increase Federal appropriations in the USACE budget for harbor maintenance and improvements while maintaining current cost share responsibilities. • Increase Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) user fees and allocate increased revenues to harbor improvements. • Maintain or increase Federal appropriations and also increase local cost share requirements. • Encourage individual port initiatives by phasing out the HMTF, expecting individual ports to collect their own fees and make their own investment and maintenance decisions. Inland waterways • To support waterway improvements, increase the fuel tax and provide increases in Federal appropriations to track with the increased revenues fl owing into the IWTF; depending upon the revenues from the fuel tax, reduce the share of total costs that is paid from general appropriations. • Replace the fuel tax with a vessel user fee and/or combine the fuel tax with a vessel user fee and increase revenues and appropriations for improvements at least by the amount of the increased revenues.2 • Implement public-private partnerships with the responsibility for improving, operating and maintaining the inland waterway navigation infrastructure along specified segments of the system. Financing for these actions would be secured in private capital markets with revenues to repay the financed activities earned from a combination of vessel user fees (segment fees or lockage fees) and appropriations.
• #14: There is currently a lack of post-Panamax capacity at U.S. Gulf and South Atlantic ports – the very regions geographically positioned to potentially be most impacted by the expected changes in the world fleet.The availability of larger, more efficient vessels passing though the new locks on the canal is expected to potentially have at least three major market effects. (1) Currently, there is significant freight shipped to the eastern half of the United States over the intermodal land bridge formed by the rail connections to West Coast ports. The potential for reduced cost of the water route through the canal may cause freight traffic to shift from West Coast to East Coast ports. (2) To take full advantage of the very largest vessels that will be able to fit through the expanded canal but may be too large to call at most U.S. ports, a transshipment service in the Caribbean or a large U.S. port may develop. The largest vessels would unload containers at the transshipment hub for reloading on smaller feeder vessels for delivery to ports with less channel capacity. (3) On the export side the ability to employ large bulk vessels is expected to significantly lower the delivery cost of U.S. agricultural exports to Asia and other foreign markets. This could have a significant impact on both the total quantity of U.S. agricultural exports and commodities moving down the Mississippi River for export at New Orleans.
• #16: There are many non-financial factors to be considered when modernizing the Nation’s navigation infrastructure:A modernization strategy should be part of a national transportation strategy that considers multi-modal connectivity and capacity of the intermodal freight transportation corridors. This would necessitate consistency with other Federal programs such as DOT Tiger Grants. Navigation infrastructure modernization will have environmental impacts that will most likely require impact avoidance or replacement of lost environmental quality. Total avoidance of impact may be indicated where the effects are of such national significance that development of transportation infrastructure at the proposed site should not be supported at the Federal level. Opportunities to contribute to the Administration’s initiative to increase exports, energy independence and enhance national security should be considered. Local sponsor commitment in terms of cost sharing and community support should be taken into consideration. Consideration should be given to ports that facilitate traffic to multiple regions of the country as opposed to serving only a local catchment area.When infrastructure projects are planned, designed and implemented, they should explicitly include the concept of adaptive management (i.e., the identification of sequential decisions and implementation based on new knowledge and thresholds) within a risk management framework.
• #19: Neches River Saltwater BarrierCongress authorized funding more than 30 years ago to construct the Neches River Saltwater Barrier in Southeast Texas, near Beaumont. As a project in the Water Resources Development Act of 1976, the saltwater barrier was conceived to control water salinity, improve water supply and navigation, and to enhance fish and wildlife recreation.  The saltwater barrier impedes the flow of brackish water from the Gulf of Mexico into the Neches River, while allowing barges and recreational boats unfettered access. The region also relies on the Neches River as an important source of high quality water for municipal drinking water, agricultural irrigation and industrial purposes. When the river flow is low because of drought or other environmental influences, saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico can flow upstream. If the saltwater enters water intake structures on the Neches River, the higher salinity can damage crops or contaminate water meant for consumption by humans or livestock. During low-water or drought conditions when the river’s flow is not sufficient to flush the naturally encroaching saltwater back into the sea, a series of five independently operated tainter gates can be closed to manually keep the plume from migrating upstream.The $32 million project also includes a 4,500-square-foot administration building with a water quality laboratory and control rooms; one public and private boat ramp; a 2,000-square-foot boathouse; public restrooms, and access road and parking lots.The completed project received an Outstanding Performance Appraisal and the 2004 Special Recognition Award for Design and Environmental from the Corps of Engineers.