Action Sought for ICW - Intracoastal Waterway - Brief Article

Boat/US Magazine, May, 2000

An alliance of recreational boaters and commercial maritime interests is starting to make waves in Washington, DC, in a campaign to rescue the Intracoastal Waterway from years of neglect.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association, which includes commercial shipping firms, towing companies and marina operators, as well as BoatU.S., was formed last year to advocate dredging and repairs along the ICW. The ultimate goal is to secure consistent funding for long-term maintenance of the 1,100-mile commercial and recreational waterway in the Southeast.

Throughout its entire 61-year history, the ICW seldom has been maintained consistently to its authorized depths. A 12-foot channel is authorized from Norfolk, VA, to Ft. Pierce, FL, and from there to Miami, it's 10 feet deep. But in some stretches, the water can be as shallow as five or six feet.

Vessel groundings are common in parts of the ICW, creating potentially dangerous situations for both commercial crews and for recreational boaters who must share the narrow channels with commercial traffic.

According to Rosemary Lynch, AIWA executive director, the idea of joining recreational and commercial interests in the five-state region from Virginia through Florida into an alliance for change has a lot of appeal on Capitol Hill. AIWA members have made the ICW case to members of Congress, whose districts include the waterway and to key members of the House Appropriations Committee.

In Congress, key members who control the purse strings for the Corps dredging budget are Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, and Rep. Ron Packard (R-CA), chairman of the same committee in the House of Representatives.

Congress charged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with maintaining the authorized depths and the general condition of the waterway in the 1938 Rivers and Harbors Act, but it seldom provides adequate funding to do the job, Lynch reported.

Lynch also said the Corps has not conducted a comprehensive survey of ICW use and maintenance needs in at least a decade. AIWA recently secured a commitment from the Corps' Southeast District to undertake such a survey which will be used to bolster the case for adequate funding. But she added that condition reports from recreational boaters who use the ICW are very important, too, and AIWA is conducting its own survey.

"The ICW has been shortchanged for too long," said BoatU.S. Chairman Richard Schwartz. "Recreational boaters can now help us put this long-neglected waterway on the right course by participating in this survey."

To fill out the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway User Condition Report on-line, boaters should visit: boatus.com/gov/aiwa.htm.

AIWA Associate Membership is available to boating organizations, marinas and local governments as well as individual boaters.