S SELL STATEMENT OF DR. JOE A. EDMINSTER, ECOLOGICAL CONSULTANT, PENSACOLA, FLA., ACCOMPANIED BY ALICE HARRIS Dr. EDMISTEN. Good afternoon. I appreciate the chance to be heard. Unlike Prof. William Vickrey, who said he was not paid directly by the railroads to come and give his testimony, I was paid directly by the National Waterways Conference to develop a paper on some environmental benefits of water transportation and to give my opinion about locks and dam 26 and user charges. The National Waterways Conference, Inc. has not asked me to take any particular stand and I would not take any particular stand at their request because my honesty and integrity is what my entire profession is built on. I am accompanied today by a fellow environmental scientist, Alice Harris, who helped prepare my written statement. I hope you will not hold me to the 5 minutes. Since I am an exuniversity professor like Professor Vickrey, you probably should give me the same amount of time. I think you should give me a few more inutes since I am a qualified environmental scientist who has a Ph. D. I will try not to be redundant or boring but I would appreciate more than 5 minutes. Senator GRAVEL. You have more than 5 minutes. Dr. EDMISTEN. Thank you. I have developed a rather lengthy statement which I will submit for the record. I will not read that entire statement because I know you are very busy people. I do want to get across a few points. First: I would like to say that I differ substantially with the testimony of Mr. Ela in several critical areas. Based upon my years of training and my Ph. D. in ecology, I have to call the turbidity Mr. Ela talked about a "red herring" like he called the other issues. If you know the Mississippi River you know it is very turbid to begin with. Added turbidity is not going to add anything of signifiCance. The increased turbidity and the stirring up of the organic materials might increase the efficiency of critters that live on the bottom like the very important fingernail clam in the various pools in the upper Mississippi, which filter through the turbidity and get out Pieces of organic matter. They might have their productivity inCreased by this organic matter being stirred up. The fingernail clams are famous for feeding hundreds of thousands of diving ducks of many species that go through the Mississippi River valley on their migratory route. I try to avoid these controversial things but have to differ about barge traffic being more circuitous than railroad traffic. If you take a train and go from one stop to another, it usually is more direct than barges. But in reality, if you mix in cars, as is the usual case in train traffic, their route becomes quite circuitous by the time they uncouple them and get them around, and so forth. I differ from Mr. Ela's testimony on the energy question. I have studied the energy question quite a long time. You can get anybody you want to, to prove your point because oftentimes people will giv testimony that you want to hear. The fact remains that barge tran portation is energy efficient. You can look at the historical develop ment of our Nation. You figure a packhorse can carry a few hundre pounds. That same horse can pull a thousand or so pounds on wagon. But that same packhorse could pull several thousands pounds on a barge. It is simply easier on a thermodynamic basis b cause the carrying structures of trucks or trains are naturally heavi among other factors. I also differ from Mr. Ela's interpretation of the Corps of Eng neers. Its people are painted as a bunch of idiots and dishonest pe ple. I find the Corps of Engineers is made up of capable, honorab people trying to do the best that they can. I don't think it serves an of our causes to continue to attack the Corps of Engineers. I happened to be on the same program with General Morris whe the Texas Water Conservation Association met about 2 weeks ag General Morris was telling a whole new story about a whole ne Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers used to be a differen critter. But now-a-days they may get an environmental award fro the Sierra Club or Environmental Club for some of their work. I will go through 5 minutes of summary of my statement which submitted for the record. I am Joe Edmisten. My home is 1117 Ea Fairfield Dr., Pensacola, Fla. I am an environmental scientist. earned my Ph. D. in ecology in 1963 from the University of Florid From 1963 to 1968, I taught ecology and did environmental researd at the University of Georgia. While there, I helped develop the fir course in ecology which served both the zoology and botany depar ments. 1968, I accepted a position at the University of West Flo ida, where I became the director of the Office of Environment Studies and the executive director of the West Florida Natural R sources Council. Since 1973, I have been self-employed as an enviro mental consultant. Early in my carcer, I became aware of the need for a well balance national transportation system which fully uses the best aspects the various modes of transportation.. I have devoted my life and energy to becoming a trained ecologis In my professional opinion water transportation is the most ecolog cally desirable form of transport. It is environmentally superior other modes for the following reasons. One, it uses less resources to accomplish the same amount of wor for example, to carry the same amount of tonnages, barges requi about 52 percent less steel than railcars. Two, barging and water transportation create rather than destr productive ecosystems. You can go anywhere and they talk abo saving wetlands. The water that actually supports the barges co tinues to be biologically productive. Take the locks and dams th they created in the upper Mississippi and you have the most treme dous wildlife habitats. The rights-of-way of barges are useful for many other purposes addition to commerce. They are good for fishing, hunting, water sto age, boating, swimming, et cetera. ers P Water transport is far safer, in spite of what you may have heard, for both nature and man. Government regulations and inspections by the Coast Guard are responsible for the excellent safety record of the barges. If you want to have an authoritative look in the safety record, there is an article in a magazine called Environment that is called "Freighted with Hazard." It is out of the magazine called Environment, December 1970, volume 12, number 10. Water transportation creates less air and noise pollution. Tugboats use less fuel to haul the same amount of cargo, thus they create less air pollution. They are also quieter than trains and trucks. I have personally seen birds going across the waterway along with the barges. Probably the most important advantage of water transportation is that it is more energy efficient. I have looked at the studies. I still get back to a figure where a ton-mile by water uses about 500 Btu's and the same amount of work by trains uses 750 Btu's and by truck far, far more. If you take the circuity into account you still come out that tal My position should not be taken as antitrain or antitrucks. I believe we are going to need those forms of transportation for their terparticular assets which are not shared by barges. sity ment Our railroad system should be maintained and expanded. You probably read the newspaper where ConRail cost only $200 million Instead of the $298 million loss expected. I think that the railroads Are a good investment for the United States. I believe that it is apparent that by only expanding the capabilities of both railroads and waterways, will we be able to use our coal reServes in the next 20-or-so years. I urge this committee to protect and enhance our water transportation system. Its environmental advantages will become increasingly more important to this Nation. At a time when we are considering taxing large, gas using cars and providing Government rebates for full efficient cars, we shouldn't be penalizing our most fuel efficient means of transportation. I will submit for the record a more detailed statement. I will answer any questions that you might have. (See p. 253.) Senator GRAVEL. I have no questions. Senator DOMENICI. Who did you say hired you to testify? Dr. EDMISTEN. The National Waterways Conference, Inc. asked me to make this testimony. I have spent 3 days preparing my statement. It actually interfered with my work. I rather would not have taken this job, but I have a dedication to water-borne transportation that caused me to come up and do this work. Senator DOMENICI. Let me ask you, you didn't mention anything directly about user fees, but if I read you right, I assume you think the kind of user fee, which is directed as paying some or all of the cost of operation, maintenance or construction, you are opposed to that, is that correct? Dr. EDMISTEN. No, sir. I am sure that the National Waterways Conherference would like me to say I am opposed to it but personally I caning not say I am opposed to it. I would say in my opinion, sir, we are 88-866 0-77-17 making a mistake when we tie the waterway user fee to locks an dam 26. I look upon that as sort of a blackmail-extortion thing. I think we are making a mistake when we do so. I think we ma have waterway user charges down the road. But I believe also that w need a top priority to a good marriage of railroads and barges. I spent some time trying to design barge terminals, and railroa terminals that will bring unit load trains of coal and then turn it ove to the barges. Personally, I am in complete accord with your driv for user charges. Senator DOMENICI. Let me then say to you that in terms of eff ciency, you didn't have to worry about this Senator, because peop come up and talk to the contrary. I wasn't worried about whether is efficient or not. Obviously, if there wasn't any other modes of transportation, it one of the efficient. I think all of the advice that we ought to try put some user implications into the inland waterways was directed an intermodal balance rather than saying that the inland waterway were not efficient. I hope, regardless of what the witnesses had told us, I hope yo understand that from my standpoint, the user fee situation is n because I am trying to all by itself make it less efficient. I am trying to make the intermodal system, when you balance the all, trying to make them more efficient. I don't necessarily think can move things around like the good doctor from Columbia said terms of pure economic efficiency in transportation. But I think an intermodal balance is greatly detracted from whe one good system gets yet a better ride at the taxpayers' expense a the others get little or nothing and have to compete with it. That is basically the premise. I just want to tell you that from standpoint. I appreciate your testimony. I don't have any further questions. [Mr. Edmisten's prepared statement and a letter, from Mr. E misten, received subsequent to the hearing follows:] SOME ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF WATER TRANSPORTATION by Dr. Joe A. Edmisten, 1117 East Fairfield Drive, Pensacola, FL I I am an environmental scientist. I earned my Ph.D. in ecology in 1963 at the University of Florida. I taught ecology and did environmental research at the University of Georgia from 1963 to 1968. While at Georgia, I helped develop the first course in ecology which served both the zoology and botany departments. Dr. Eugene Odum and I team taught this course. the Office of Environmental Studies and the Executive Direc tor of the West Florida Natural Resources Council. Since 1973, I have been self employed as the head of an environmental consulting firm. This brief background is presented to indicate that I have the education and experience to qualify me to speak on the matter of the environmental benefits of water transportation. Early in my career, I became aware of our need for a well balanced national transportation system which fully utilizes the best aspects of the various modes of transportation. Water transport has always been an important asset to this nation. In the early days of westward expansion natural waterways were the avenues civilization followed. The reason is simple. It is very much easier to transport goods on water than over roads, particularly primitive roads. When only |