Glenn Ashmore wrote in message news:2me_b.14381$23.140@lakeread04...
I ran into this situation when I was doing research on the marine
sanitation legislation. The problem is that the Corps of Engineers does
not keep records of yacht traffic on the AICW. Unlike most of the newer
impounds and waterways that the COE maintains, the AICW was created
before recreational boating had a major economic impact. They must
evaluate the economic impact of the AICW on commercial traffic only.

It is actually sort of a self fulfilling situation. The COE has to
allocate its budget based on economic impact. For several years barge
traffic on the AICW was well below the Gulf Coast ICW in total tons and
ton-miles. That made the COE allocate more money to other waterways.
Tonnage was down 20% from 2000 to 2001 primarily because the low level
of maintenance caused so much of shoaling. Now it is 1/20th of the Gulf
ICW traffic so it is hard to justify renovating it. Less funding = less
traffic = even less funding. If estimated 15,000 recreational boats
that transit the waterway twice a year could be included the picture
would be a lot different.

The thing that really hacks me is that Rep. Jack Kingston from my state
who is on the Appropriations Committee did not ask for any funding and
all the ICW through Georgia is in his district. All we got was enough
to keep 2 engineers at work measuring the shoaling in 100 miles of
waterway.


DSK wrote:

The budget for maintaining the ICW has never been lavish. Now it's just
been cut a bit more...

One of the big problems I see is that the section between Beaufort NC
and Norfolk is going downhill. For much of the Atlantic, going offshore
isn't too terrible an option (*if* the inlets are passable)... but Cape
Hattaras is a deal breaker.

anchorlt wrote:


Nothing that a few more tax cuts won´t solve....
john
Salty Southeast Nautical Newsletter Supplement

(very long cut-n-paste spam snipped)

There was an article in Soundings recently about how much the commercial
traffic in the ICW contributes to the economy, and they noted that the
figures don't include recreational traffic. The question is, does the
ICW pay it's own way?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King