Monroe Journal
Rainfall events pose setback to waterway dredge completion date
By Ray Van Dusen
ABERDEEN – Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith saw remnants of the late February flooding event on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway first-hand during an April 23 briefing at the Aberdeen Lock and Dam. One of the many takeaways was the estimated reopening of the waterway to barge traffic has been pushed back due to above average rainfalls.
Whereas dredge work to clear the 400,000-cubic-foot sandbar south of the Aberdeen Lock and Dam was anticipated to be complete May 1, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Operations Site Manager Justin Murphree said recent large rainfall events have posed setbacks. He expects dredging of the sandbar to be complete by May 3.
“After that, they’ll move three or four miles downstream where we have a draft restriction of seven feet. It’s going to take them seven to 10 days to finish that, so complete, unobstructed channel…about the second week of May,” he said.
To get everything on the waterway completely restored to normal will take until November or December, according to estimates.
Emergency funding for the waterway is included in a $13 billion relief package being discussed in Congress.
“Part of my job is to get out and see what the disasters are right now and to make sure we have the funding there for the Corps of Engineers to address it to make sure it gets funneled in the right direction to make sure we solve the problem,” Hyde-Smith said. “Obviously, we want as much tonnage down the waterway as we possibly can get. Right now, we’re shut down, so I’m the one who has got to have the tenacity that we’ve got to get it done right now because things have stopped on the waterway.”
Congress went on a two-week recess in April before the relief package passed, which includes Hurricane Maria relief and funding for those affected by wildfires and flooding events from recent months.
“It’s making sure we have the correct information, the testimonies from me that I’ve been here. I see what’s happened and I have the facts, the figures and the information of what it’s doing to commerce right now,” she said. “We just want to make sure that government runs smoothly, effectively but make sure it’s done timely and correctly.”
Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Authority and local industry leaders illustrated the negative effect shoaling throughout the waterway has left.
“We have 20 areas of shoaling that are a result of the flooding with the total of 1.79 million cubic yards of material,” Murphree said. “We’ve had three flood events since this time and every time we have a flood event, it changes this, and it washes some of this downstream. It’s good that it’s leaving here, but it’s leaving it somewhere else.”
Most of the shoaling is between Amory and Demopolis, Alabama.
The lack of barge traffic on the waterway has been felt by local industries.
“We bring in raw materials from South Africa and Australia where we own facilities. When this lock became blocked, our next stop is where our material goes to Watco. We’ve already incurred probably half a million just in transportation having to truck all that material to come by rail. The impact has been huge already just in a short amount of time,” said Jason Minga, safety, health, environmental and quality manager at Tronox.
Monroe County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Chelsea Baulch said Enviva has been able to use unoccupied barges to store finished goods until the waterway is reopened.
“It’s been a big community, for lack of better words, to share and borrow to make sure everyone can stay in production, so we’re very grateful that even though Tronox has had the expedited costs, they are still in production, the same for Enviva. I hope that will remain the case until it’s opened back up,” she said.