Sen. Katie Britt attended a recent hearing of the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee where she advocated for waterway infrastructure in Selma and Demopolis, as well as Mobile Bay.
During the hearing Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works D. Lee Forsgren, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Engineers and Commanding General Lt. Gen. William H. Graham, Jr. were witnesses.
According to an announcement from Britt's office she spoke about reported failures at Demopolis, Holt, and Wilson Locks.
“When these things happen, it disrupts our entire economies," she said. "I mean, we saw it negatively impact our [agriculture] industry, negatively impact our energy industry, negatively impact our aerospace industry.”
The announcement pointed out a delegation that Britt led in a letter addressed to the corps about failures in Demopolis.
“I’m also pleased to see that the work plan budgeted for repairs in Demopolis and Holt and also appreciate what you’re doing in Coffeeville as well," she said. "I think it is imperative that we actually fix these things before they become a problem.”
The announcement also cited a work plan for the fiscal year 2025 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and credited Britt for securing "significantly higher" funding for the Mobile Harbor and the Selma Bank Stabilization Project.
“There is no reason for us to get to the point of failure," Britt said. "We should be taking a look and making responsible, upgrades and maintenance on the front end so that we don’t get to this point.”
Graham replied to Britt's words about infrastructure failures, mentioning the waterway in Demopolis.
“[O]n Black Warrior Tenn-Tom, we are not providing a reliable transportation system that your constituents can count on, we own that," he said. "I stood down at the sill, Demopolis, and I had all of our smart engineers from around the nation there, and we were trying to figure out how could we have seen, that that Sill might give way … They got really inventive up at Holt so that we could get that back in operation with the temporary fix, and then we have the long term fix handled.”
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.