ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. – IWR Report 2014-R-04 Environmental Impact Mitigation Needs of Future Port and Waterway Modernization Activities in the United States.
In preparation for the increasing size of container vessels and enlargement of the Panama Canal, Congress asked the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) for an assessment of port and waterway modernization needs, including environmental impact mitigation. A draft of this report provided a comprehensive reference for the environmental aspects of the Congressional report. The report focuses on major container ports in the United States and locks in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Container ports were selected to represent needs and impacts in the major coastal regions. Past environmental impacts of ports and waterways were reviewed to establish context and help identify representative data indicating impact vulnerability and impact sources. Vulnerability indicators included data on public health and safety, environmental justice; parks and other preserves; threatened and endangered species; commercial fisheries value; sportfishing activity; and public beaches. Impact sources were indicated by the amount of additional dredging needed, the regional population growth served by the ports, and the difference between percent population growth and percent unused port capacity.
A small geographical area of the conterminous United States has been directly affected by ports, waterways, and connecting transportation corridors, but the cumulative adverse impact on natural systems and wild species is particularly intense (e.g., covered by concrete). Off-site impacts of systems operations on air and water quality are often far reaching. Ports and waterways occur in and near ecosystems that are among the scarcest and most damaged in the United States.
This study indicates that the costs of environmental impact mitigation are likely to be substantial almost anywhere within and across regions impacted by transportation system modernization, but ports in the Southeast appear to be most in need of modernization attention and are most likely to require significant environmental mitigation. Pacific coast ports follow in order of potential impacts. Unused port and waterway capacity allows for considerable increase in freight movement without stressing port limits in all regions and the numbers of larger vessels are likely to increase gradually. Transportation changes may also increase the demand for grain shipments on the Mississippi River and the possible need for lock expansion requiring some environmental impact mitigation. Adaptive management is a wise strategy to use in future federal modernization investment considerations given the uncertainties associated with future actions and mitigation costs. Trends in transportation system change should be monitored more regularly to better manage the uncertainty and risks of environmental impact. Download the full report from the IWR website.
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