Columbia River boaters can do that today because the city took advantage of the federal Boating Infrastructure Grant program to build dockage facilities specifically for transient vessels. Last May Rainier opened a new facility that replaced a condemned wooden pier with a new 300-foot concrete float and 12 transient slips, providing the first large-boat access to Rainier in decades. The transient dock and adjacent Rainier City Marina form a key element of an entire downtown riverfront revitalization project.

“Rainier has become a stopping point for recreational vessels traveling on the river,” reports Mayor Jerry Cole. “We used to have to chase boats away because the pier was so unsafe. Now, come Friday afternoon through Monday morning, all our transient spaces are filled up.

“Some of the boats are so big you can see the masts above the buildings from blocks away and that’s a good feeling,” Cole adds. “It means our stores and restaurants are getting new business and boaters are discovering what a great little town we have here.”

Cole says he’d like to see Rainier become a major boating destination but that’s unlikely since most transients are headed to Astoria, at the Columbia’s mouth, or Portland, 50 miles up river. But Rainer’s location midway between the two carves out a stopover niche for the city which, he says, could lead to additional boating service businesses locating there.

When Cole cut the ribbon to open the project in May 2003, it became the first transient facility in the nation to be completed using federal Boating Infrastructure Grant dollars — the so-called “BIG program.”

BIG Bucks

To date, the BIG program has put over $31 million back into boating since being authorized by the Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998, legislation shepherded through Congress by BoatUS The program funnels federal gasoline tax monies paid by recreational boaters back to the states — in the case of the Rainier project, through the Oregon State Marine Board — to build facilities specifically for transient boats.

Federal BIG grants, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, come in two flavors. Tier One grants of up to $100,000 were provided to each state that applied during each of the past four years. Tier Two projects, intended to support major infrastructure development, have no dollar limit but states must compete for funding based on carefully crafted criteria. Such projects must be matched by at least 25% in state, local or private dollars. Regulations cap dockage charges for transients at no more than the local prevailing rate.

Grants can be used to build or rebuild mooring fields, transient slips, harbors of refuge, breakwaters, bulkheads and dinghy docks. Related facilities like restrooms, fuel docks, electric, water and sewage utilities, and recycling stations can be added using BIG funds as well as pumpout stations and private aids to navigation.

Projects must be located on water bodies deep enough for boats 26 feet and over to navigate at a minimum of six feet of depth at low tide. A project may include costs for one-time dredging to provide access between open water and the tie-up facility.

As in the Rainier project, the goal is to give people traveling by boat access to shoreside shopping, restaurants, visitor attractions and other services which in turn benefits waterfront economies.

“In just five years, the BIG program has provided major improvements for boating and fishing opportunities on all three coasts, the Great Lakes and our inland rivers,” reports BoatUS Government Affairs Vice President Michael Sciulla. “Right now there are transient projects funded in 40 states, four territories and Washington, DC. Large Tier Two projects are completed or underway in 13 states and all of this is paid for with boaters’ gas tax dollars.”

Sciulla noted that while vessels 26 feet and above comprise only about 5% of boats on the water, they contribute as much as 15% of the federal gas taxes paid.

“This is a model user-pays, user-benefits program but part of the payoff is the multiplier effect that the BIG program has on local economies as well,” Sciulla notes.

A major goal of the BIG program is to make shoreside attractions accessible, Sciulla adds. He points to projects now in various stages such as the installation of a 6,000-square foot floating pier with slips adjacent to the convention center in Tampa, FL. That facility is projected to serve 1,200 visiting boats annually. On the Chesapeake Bay, a similar pier system, coupled with a floating breakwater and 50 transient slips, is designed to attract boaters to historic Yorktown Village, VA, formerly accessible only to motorists.

One of Lake Erie’s most popular boating destinations, Ohio’s Middle Bass Island State Park is adding 60 transient slips with BIG funds to handle seasonal demand at its constantly booked-up marina. And the Mississippi River cities of Clinton, IA, and Fulton, IL, are working together in a unique cross-river BIG partnership to attract transients to both waterfronts.

Near the mouth of the Mississippi, at Venice, LA, an existing marina is upgrading its accommodations by adding 38 slips dedicated to transient traffic. Like all BIG projects, all the gangways, restrooms and other facilities are designed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the marina will now be able to accommodate larger vessels. In the Hudson River, heart of Washington Irving country, the Village of Nyack, NY, is installing 40 mooring sites and 10 slips for transients who may be looking for a stopover a short day’s sail from the Big Apple.

The streamlined Tier One grant system offers states the flexibility to address immediate needs at existing transient stops with a quicker payoff to the boater than the competitive Tier Two projects. For example, using Tier One funds the state of Texas installed much-needed restrooms, laundry equipment and showers at sites ranging from the urban Corpus Christi waterfront to remote Matagorda Island State Park as a service to the increasing transient traffic on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

In Alaska, BIG funds proved the catalyst for installation of two large but long overdue mooring floats for boaters visiting Juneau, while 250 miles down the coast a Tier One grant allowed the Ketchican Yacht Club to upgrade its utilities for transients cruising the Inside Passage.

But after five years of pumping gas tax dollars back into facilities like these and numerous others across the country, the BIG program is now high and almost dry, Sciulla says. That’s because congressional authorization for the program expired last Sept. 30 and reauthorization — this time for six years — has been delayed, but not because of any opposition to it. The BIG program, he says, remained grounded in the last session of Congress because it is part of the overall Aquatic Resources (Wallop Breaux) Trust Fund which, in turn, is part of a massive, and contentious, transportation funding bill, mainly for highways.

Congress has temporarily extended all transportation programs, the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund included, while it sorts out the issues. So technically, the BIG program is still operating and additional funds should be awarded this year.

By Ryck Lydecker

BIG Needs You!
Do you want Congress to continue to return your federal gas tax dollars to boating through the Boating Infrastructure Grant program and the other boating safety, education, clean water and access programs supported by the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund? Contact your representative in Congress as well as the two senators from your state (see BoatUS.com/gov/contact.htm for congressional information). Ask them to support S. 1804 for reauthorization and full funding of the Aquatic Resources (Wallop-Breaux) Trust Fund. And send a copy of your correspondence to: GovtAffairs@BoatUS.com.

©BoatUS Magazine, March 2004