Senator Stabenow, Rep. Huizenga Lead Bipartisan Great Lakes Task Force Letter Stressing Importance of Soo Locks

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Co-Chair of Senate Great Lakes Task Force, and Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Co-Chair of the House Great Lakes Task Force, today led a bicameral, bipartisan letter to the United States Army Corps of Engineers stressing the importance of completing the study at the Soo Locks in an accurate and timely manner.  U.S. Senator Gary Peters and Representatives Sander Levin, Fred Upton, Tim Walberg, Dan Kildee, Debbie Dingell, Brenda Lawrence, David Trott, Jack Bergman, and Paul Mitchell also signed the letter as members of the Senate and House Great Lakes Task Forces. 

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is currently undertaking an economic reevaluation of a project to build a new navigation lock at the Sault Ste. Marie Locks complex in Michigan,” the lawmakers wrote.  “This revaluation is necessary due to erroneous assumptions later acknowledged by USACE in its original economic analysis.  We write to ensure that USACE engages stakeholders and considers appropriate transportation alternatives to ensure an accurate benefit-cost ratio (BCR) analysis for the project, which is critically important to our states and the entire country.”

“We therefore encourage USACE to ensure that the BCR reevaluation of the Soo Locks project is conducted in a manner that is consistent with other navigation lock and dam project evaluations regarding alternate transportation modes, and that every step is taken to expedite the completion of this critically important analysis,” the lawmakers went on to say. 

The full text of the letter is available below. 

February 22, 2017

Mr. Douglas Lamont

Performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works)

108 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-0108

Lieutenant General Todd T. Semonite

Headquarters

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

441 G Street NW

Washington, DC 20314-1000

Dear Mr. Lamont and General Semonite:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is currently undertaking an economic reevaluation of a project to build a new navigation lock at the Sault Ste. Marie Locks complex in Michigan, which was authorized by Congress in 1986 and 2007.  This revaluation is necessary due to erroneous assumptions later acknowledged by USACE in its original economic analysis.  We write to ensure that USACE engages stakeholders and considers appropriate transportation alternatives to ensure an accurate benefit-cost ratio (BCR) analysis for the project, which is critically important to our states and the entire country.

In October 2015, the Department of Homeland Security conducted an analysis of the economic impacts of a 6-month closure of the 49-year old Poe Lock at the Soo Locks complex. DHS concluded that the Poe Lock is the Achilles’ heel of the North American industrial economy and that such an outage would send the United States’ economy into a recession. Later that year, in December 2015, USACE agreed to reevaluate the BCR of upgrading the Soo Locks after acknowledging inaccuracies in its original BCR determination that left the project unable to compete for federal funding.

It is our understanding that USACE is reevaluating the BCR for this project by calculating the transportation rate savings based on an alternative mode of transporting commodities around the falls at the Soo Lock using a conveyer belt system. It has come to our attention that this alternative has never been considered for other lock and dam projects, and that transportation via rail or truck have historically been the alternative methods considered in a BCR analysis. We therefore encourage USACE to ensure that the BCR reevaluation of the Soo Locks project is conducted in a manner that is consistent with other navigation lock and dam project evaluations regarding alternate transportation modes, and that every step is taken to expedite the completion of this critically important analysis.

Thank you for your consideration of our request, and we look forward to your prompt response.