The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Director of Civil Works, Alvin Lee, signed the director’s report that recommends improvements to the Lowell Creek flood diversion project on May 19 in Washington, D.C.
May 7, 2021 By Waterways Journal
President Joe Biden is on a multistate tour to promote his infrastructure bill. He has signaled in recent weeks that he is ready to negotiate with Republicans, who have replied to his multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill with a slimmed-down $568 billion proposal focusing on traditional infrastructure and proposing user fees instead of new taxes to pay for the improvements.
One of the big areas of discussion, in both Congress and the press, has been what constitutes “infrastructure.” Most members and the public understand it to mean roads, bridges, ports, broadband, railways, energy, water supply and other physical infrastructure. Since there has long been strong bipartisan support for infrastructure spending, the Biden administration is trying to include certain health-care related measures under the “infrastructure” rubric. A fact sheet published by the White House in ad
May 7, 2021 By Shelley Byrne
Former Ohio River Lock and Dam 52 property near Brookport, Ill., is being conveyed to the Metropolis-Massac Port Authority later this year.
The provision was written into the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 with the support of legislators on both the Illinois and Kentucky sides of the river. The deed conveyance will take place once the final government contract for demolishing the former Dam 52 is completed.
“We’ve had our eye on the Dam 52 property for a long time,” Metropolis-Massac Executive Director Scott Garrett said.
Section 356 of WRDA gives the port authority “all right, title and interest of the United States in and to any real property located north of the south bank of the Ohio River in Massac County, Ill., that is associated with the Ohio River Lock and Dam 52.”
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), along with U.S. Representatives Sam
Graves (Mo.) and Emanuel Cleaver II (Mo.), led a bipartisan, bicameral letter
urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to quickly and fully utilize
the tools and resources Congress provided in the Water Resources Development
Act (WRDA) of 2020 and the FY2020 Energy and Water appropriations bill to
reduce flood risk and improve flood protection along the Lower Missouri River.
In addition to Blunt, Graves, and
Cleaver, the letter is signed by congressional members from the Lower Missouri River
Basin states, including U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Deb Fischer