Infrastructure again? Recall that my last two water columns also dealt with infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2013 infrastructure report card was very disturbing. Of the seven water-related infrastructure categories, five scored D or D-.

Last month, the column addressed levees, a category that scored D-. The subject this month is inland waterways, the other category that scored D-. In truth, every stream in the country from the smallest creek to the mightiest river is an inland waterway. After all, aren't they inland? Doesn't water flow in them? Yes, but for evaluation purposes, ASCE defines inland waterways as only those streams that are navigable by freight barges.

Based on this definition, the inland waterways system in the U. S. includes about 12,000 miles of navigable river channels. Many of these are in the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Columbia River Basins. Included in the system are more than 200 locks. Each year, nearly 570 million tons of freight are shipped by barge, the equivalent of 51 million truck trips. Barge shipping is cheap and efficient and reduces highway congestion. So what is the problem? Why the low grade?

Simply put, the problem is that the system is not adequately maintained and rehabilitation has not been adequately funded. Parts of the system haven't been rehabilitated for more than 50 years. Locks often are in disrepair, more than half of them are over 50 years old. Channels may silt in and require dredging to allow barge passage. To exacerbate the problem, larger barges have come into use.

An average of 52 service interruptions each day occurs in the system. Let's acknowledge that even with a perfect system, some delays, for example weather delays, are inevitable. But some barges are stopped for hours each day because of delays related to system breakdown, maintenance or dredging. A fact: In 2011 alone, the number of hours of barge delays was the equivalent of 25 years time. Figure it out, 24 hours a day times 365 days a year, times 25 years. That's 219,000 hours of barge traffic delays in one year. Unbelievable! And guess what? If the system continues to deteriorate, the delays will inevitably increase.

So what can be done? First, who pays for new construction, maintenance and rehabilitation? These costs are shared between the federal government and the users. Let's say that the 2011 numbers, 215,000 hours of delays each year, are acceptable. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that by 2020, maintaining the system just to keep delays at this level would require an expenditure of 13 billion dollars. So how does this compare to current funding levels for new construction, maintenance and rehabilitation? Current funding levels projected through 2020 are 7 billion. A discrepancy, right? It appears there is no easy fix unless a lot more money is thrown at the inland waterway system. If this doesn't happen, I think what will happen is gradually increasing delays. If so, what is the tipping point? 250,000 hours a year? 500,000 hours a year? When will ASCE give inland waterways a grade of F? The pessimist in me doesn't think it's too far off.

Much of the information in this article was adapted from the ASCE 2013 publication, Report Card for America's Infrastructure.