Oklahoma officials and business leaders say the deterioration of a waterway system is threatening commerce.
They say the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System has a backlog of $100 million in maintenance work. The Tulsa World reports the backlog is critical, meaning each item listed for maintenance work has a 50 percent chance of failure within five years.
“We are starting to see reliability erode,” said Clint Herring, general manager of CF Industries’ Verdigris Nitrogen Complex. In August, an Arkansas official warned of the possibility of a “full breach” stopping traffic on the system for 100 days or more. “If it’s shut down for 100 days, you might as well not bring it back,” Herring said during the Tuesday morning meeting with [U.S. Rep. Bill] Shuster at Three Rivers Harbor at the Port of Muskogee. Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican, was visiting the Oklahoma portion of the navigation system for the second time in 18 months. He was accompanied by Second District Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Shuster’s committee, and former First District Rep. John Sullivan, who helped arrange Tuesday’s event in his current capacity as a partner in a consulting firm.
Webco's CEO Dana Webber says the steel her company ships on the navigation system can't easily be shifted or transported by rails or trucks.
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