WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today voted to send to the White House a major water infrastructure bill that they helped shape that authorizes federal resources for improving ports, waterways and flood control in Mississippi, and streamlines review and construction of waterway projects.

The Water Resources Reform & Development Act (HR.3080 or WRRDA) is the primary legislation for authorizing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agency involvement in water conservation and development projects throughout the country.  The Senate on Thursday gave the bill final Senate approval (91-7), clearing the way for the first WRRDA bill since 2007 to become law.

The final bill includes provisions championed by Cochran and Wicker during Senate consideration and passage of the legislation in May 2013, including hurricane and storm damage risk reduction, harbor maintenance reforms and other provisions.

“The agreement on this new water resources bill will help ensure Mississippi’s industries have a reliable, navigable, and cost-effective transportation network to do business,” Wicker said. “Modernizing our ports and commercial waterways is critical to maintaining competitiveness in a global economy as well as boosting trade and job growth across the nation.”

“The importance of this legislation to Mississippi as a state that relies on river ports, coastal waterways cannot be overstated,” Cochran said.  “I look forward to this measure facilitating progress on dredging, flood control and other projects that are closely associated with the commerce and public safety in Mississippi.”

Wicker serves on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that crafted the Senate WRRDA bill (S.601).  Cochran serves on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds the Army Corps of Engineers and programs authorized in WRRDA.

The Senate-House WRRDA agreement authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activities, including port dredging, inland locks and dams, and flood control projects nationwide. The legislation would also streamline waterway projects, expedite environmental review processes, allow for greater private contributions to infrastructure repairs, and complete storm protection projects in Mississippi developed after Hurricane Katrina.

Wicker and Cochran said the following provisions are particularly important to Mississippi:

• Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF):  Reforms the HMTF to increase the funds available for maintenance dredging of federal navigation channels and to provide equity for ports nationwide.  The bill increases the amount of funds drawn from the HMTF to assist ports that have not been properly dredged in recent years. The bill creates a set-aside for growing ports like the Port of Gulfport.

• Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program (MsCIP):  Section 7002 authorizes $1.07 billion for the MsCIP, which would establish a system for hurricane and storm damage risk reduction and restoration measures in coastal Mississippi counties. This section culminates efforts by Cochran and Wicker since 2009 to authorize MsCIP subprojects included in the Chief’s report.

• Crediting Authority for Navigation Projects:  Through a Cochran-sponsored amendment, the bill authorizes a non-federal interest to receive bankable credit if it carries out operation and maintenance responsibilities for a federal navigation project.  That credit could then be applied toward future construction costs associated with related projects.  This innovative provision would, for example, give the Port of Gulfport greater flexibility to deepen its channel without having to wait on the federal government.

• Inland Waterways: The bill restructures the inland waterways system to improve project delivery, lower costs, and improve project management for river ports like Natchez, Port Gibson and Vicksburg.

• Flood Risk Reduction:  The Conference report establishes a levee safety initiative authorizing the Corps to provide technical assistance and training to promote levee safety, as well as levee rehabilitation assistance activities.  The Mississippi Levee Board and the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board is responsible for maintenance activities on hundreds of miles on mainline and backwater protection levees.  This new initiative would improve cooperation between local authorities and the Corps to ensure levees are maintained to their required standards and deficient portions receive necessary repairs.

• Expediting Studies, Environmental Reviews, and Permits: The conference report, like H.R. 3080 and S. 601, would expedite Corps studies and compliance with applicable environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The conference report would raise the project cost trigger for independent peer review of feasibility studies from $45 million to $200 million.  This provision could help advance the “Metropolitan Jackson, Mississippi Pearl River Flood Control Project,” which was authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to develop a comprehensive flood control project for Rankin-Hinds metropolitan area.

• Lower Mississippi River Interpretive Site:  Provision included authorizing the renaming of the Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site after Jesse Brent, a Mississippian known as the “Granddaddy of the Towboat Industry” who passed away in 1982. Brent was posthumously named “River Person of the Century” in 2000 by the Waterways Journal.

• Donald G. Waldon Lock and Dam:  Provision added that renames the dam at Aberdeen as the Donald G. Waldon Lock and Dam.  Walden served 21 years as administrator of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Authority. 

• EPA Regulations for Farm Oil Storage Tanks:  The final bill accepts a Senate provision based legislation sponsored by Cochran (S.496) to exempt small farms with above-ground oil storage tanks with less than a 10,000 gallon aggregate storage capacity from the EPA Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure rule (SPCC). The EPA propounded a SPCC rule that set at 1,320 gallons or more of above-ground storage capacity, which would have required farmers to purchase new capital equipment to comply with the regulation.