The Army Corps of Engineers plan to shutdown two locks on the Upper Monongahela River and severely scale back operations to a third reminds me of the old addage, "Be careful what you wish for, it just might happen."
The United States Government is broke. Check that. The government is BEYOND broke. The federal deficit is $17 TRILLION dollars and growing every day. The ongoing debate in our nation today is over the rampant and uncontrolled spending of taxpayer dollars. The popular belief is to stop the spending and act a little more fiscally conservative in Washington.
The belief seems logical and simple until it impacts something affecting you. Such is the case on the Monongahela River in Marion and Monongalia County.
The Corps is faced with belt tightening. The numbers of commercial lockages at Opekiska, Hildebrande and Morgantown Locks and Dams are virtually non-existent. An official with the Corp of Engineers told me on Ram Trucks West Virginia Outdoors there had been only one commercial lockage at those dams in the last three years–and that was a tug boat going up river to move a barge which had become dislodged during high water.
Commercial lockings are what the Corps counts when it evaluates the necessity of a facility. At the time Congress authorized building locks and dams on the navigable rivers, nobody had ever heard of a bass boat. The main idea was to open up commerce and give remote regions better access to marketing natural resources. Few would have dreamed in the 1920’s or 30’s a pontoon boat would be a great way to spend a weekend cruising a remote stretch of water. Today, things are different and recreational locking at those three locations is fairly robust in the spring and summer. However, when 25 bass boats lock through to the next pool, they are considered one lockage by Corps standards.
The Upper Monongahela River Association is lobbying for several things. First they’d like to see the Corps reduce the operational days to 45 instead of closing them completely. Currently the upper locks are manned 90-days a year. Furthermore they’d like Congress to write into the legislation to count recreational craft individually as a lockage. Doing so would enable the Corps’ records to reflect the minimum number of lockages to keep them operational. Finally the group would like to work with the Corps to establish a community effort enlisting retired lockmasters to continue operating the facilities. They maintain such a system would reduce the Corp’s operating costs.
Corps officials aren’t opposed to exploring ways to keep the locks open, but ultimately the permanent solution comes down to priorities. Are we as Americans willing to spend the money to keep the locks open for recreational craft alone? If so, can we convince Congress it’s the way to go?
I’m torn. I love fishing the Morgantown and Hildebrand pools. Losing the locks means losing the fishing. There’s no public boating access in the Hildebrande pool and only a limited access to the Morgantown pool without the lock. On the other hand, I’m one of those who gets irate about wasteful government spending. I’m sure subsidizing recreational boating on a small waterway in West Virginia would be easily construed as "wasteful" by those who aren’t from here.
UMRA is the organized body pushing for reconsideration and compromise. Ultimately whether the lock and dams on the Mon survive is up to regular people and their willingness to contact Congressmen and Senators about preserving the recreational locking.