From Buttons to Bullheads to Bushels: The Illinois River Economy, by Lorri Coey
With so many stakeholders involved, planning and problem solving can be intricate and tedious. Frazee has been working to bring diverse groups together through the Governor’s Conference on the Management of the Illinois River. Participation has been growing since the first conference in 1987.
“We try to enhance the positives,” Frazee said. “The more we know, the more we find out how complex the system is. Collectively, everyone has a part in finding the solutions.”
The first conference labeled sedimentation as the number one issue. And it’s still a problem today. “With the current rate of sedimentation-in 50, 75, or 100 years-the Illinois River could be no more than a narrow channel,” Frazee said.
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Barge tow on the Illinois River just upstream from the lock and dam at Starved Rock State Park. |
Meanwhile, farmers and commodity groups are concerned with the soundness of the navigation system. The locks on the Illinois River were built in the 1930s and were designed to handle 600-foot tows. But today, tows are twice that long. They are separated and passed through the locks in two sections, a process that takes 2 1/2 hours, according to Greg Guenther, a director of the National Corn Growers Association.
Guenther is concerned with costs due to lock delays. The average delay at Peoria in 2001 was over 2 1/2 hours, which amounts to more than 4,700 delay hours through the year. Guenther thinks that without action the increased delays could cost an Illinois farmer 10 to 12 cents a bushel on average.
“What does 10 cents a bushel mean to the average farmer?” Guenther asked. “If you take someone growing 1,000 acres of corn at 165 bushels an acre, that would mean $16,500. That goes straight to the bottom line.”
The association is pushing to have two of the seven locks on the Illinois extended, along with five of the locks on the Mississippi. Guenther said estimated costs for the lock up-grades are $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. Half of the money would come from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, a fuel tax that tow companies pay.
But environmental groups dispute the need for bigger locks and are concerned about damage that could be done during construction.
Another concern that puts environmentalists and the agriculture industry across the table from one another is removing levees to restore wetlands. Andrew Isserman, a University of Illinois professor of agricultural economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, is part of a team of university scientists studying strategies for restoring the Illinois River.
Figuring the potential economic effects of environmental restoration is only part of the equation. The more complex part relies on scientists to determine what effect removing or opening levees would have on the river itself.
Isserman said, “We are trying to sketch a plan that includes flood control, recreation, and restoration and puts them together into a package that works. It might look like a comprehensive plan for a town. Just as some areas of a town are more suitable for industry, some parts of a watershed are more important for flood control or fish habitat.”
However the plans for this waterway evolve, it’s clear they will have to cover a wide range of interests.
Lorri Coey is a writer with Information Technology and Communication Services in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
