by JEFF MONTGOMERY
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it will sink about $16.9 million this year into the deepening of the Delaware River's main shipping channel.
The move is a clear sign that the 103-mile project is gathering steam despite budget criticisms and environmental protests.
The largest infusion of public cash in several years for the $267 million deepening project followed strong behind-the-scenes lobbying by Gov. Jack Markell and Delaware's congressional delegation.
The politicians had been far more guarded in their public support for the controversial deepening in past years.
Things changed in 2011, after Delaware lost a challenge to the Corps' power to dredge without state permits, and after the Corps' environmental studies passed muster with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior.
By late in the year, with dredging already under way, Markell and all three of the state's members of Congress were pressing the Corps to include the deepening in its work plan for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. That appeal put Delaware squarely in the middle of a national scramble for money from new "special accounts" created by Congress after a moratorium on budget earmarks for pet projects.
"It's earmarking by another name," said Maya van Rossum, who directs the Delaware Riverkeeper organization, a conservation group that has fought the deepening for years. "Call it a slush fund, call it whatever you will, it's a way to skirt the ban on earmarks, and the Delaware River is one of the poster children."
Delaware officials saw things differently.
"This project will have a significant, positive economic impact on Delaware and the region," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said in a joint statement with Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. John Carney, fellow state Democrats. "Investments like this one are critical to the long-term development of the Port of Wilmington and Delaware, as well as the other states along the Delaware River, to help us continue our economic recovery and to stay competitive."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it will sink about $16.9 million this year into the deepening of the Delaware River's main shipping channel.
The move is a clear sign that the 103-mile project is gathering steam despite budget criticisms and environmental protests.
The largest infusion of public cash in several years for the $267 million deepening project followed strong behind-the-scenes lobbying by Gov. Jack Markell and Delaware's congressional delegation.
The politicians had been far more guarded in their public support for the controversial deepening in past years.
Things changed in 2011, after Delaware lost a challenge to the Corps' power to dredge without state permits, and after the Corps' environmental studies passed muster with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior.
By late in the year, with dredging already under way, Markell and all three of the state's members of Congress were pressing the Corps to include the deepening in its work plan for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. That appeal put Delaware squarely in the middle of a national scramble for money from new "special accounts" created by Congress after a moratorium on budget earmarks for pet projects.
"It's earmarking by another name," said Maya van Rossum, who directs the Delaware Riverkeeper organization, a conservation group that has fought the deepening for years. "Call it a slush fund, call it whatever you will, it's a way to skirt the ban on earmarks, and the Delaware River is one of the poster children."
Delaware officials saw things differently.
"This project will have a significant, positive economic impact on Delaware and the region," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said in a joint statement with Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. John Carney, fellow state Democrats. "Investments like this one are critical to the long-term development of the Port of Wilmington and Delaware, as well as the other states along the Delaware River, to help us continue our economic recovery and to stay competitive."
Dredging crews already have deepened about 17 miles of the river between the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and the Fox Point area. Most of that work was funded by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, the project's private sponsor. Federal rules oblige the authority to pay 35 percent of the deepening cost.
Edward Voigt, spokesman for the Corps' Philadelphia regional office, said Wednesday that federal engineers are lining up the next phase but that the specific portion of the river has not yet been decided.
"I know that, in general, our next contract as far as I know is going to be to the north end," Voigt said.
Sections to the north include a rocky-bottomed section of river that will require blasting to deepen the channel.
Conservation groups have fought the plan for years, arguing that benefits will fall far short of taxpayer costs and do environmental harm to aquatic life, water quality and other natural resources. Those criticisms and skeptical reports from the Government Accountability Office stymied some attempts to set aside taxpayer funds for the project in recent years.
Corps officials have repeatedly updated their cost-benefit studies since Congress first authorized the project in 1992. Although oil refineries were initially expected to realize the majority of shipping savings, their importance has waned with recent production cuts and closings.
Ships carrying containerized freight, fruits and vegetables and bulk cargos are now cited as the project's main beneficiaries in Corps forecasts.
Those sectors have been targeted both by the Port of Wilmington and by Philadelphia, where Pennsylvania hopes to develop a massive new "Southport" container complex near the former naval shipyard.
A few environmental and procedural disputes remain.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals is considering a challenge filed by New Jersey and environmental groups based on claims the Corps failed to comply with environmental and administrative review and approval requirements before starting work.
Delaware also challenged the Corps over environmental permitting and administrative shortcomings, but declined to appeal when the U.S. District Court for Delaware refused to block the work.
Still to come are new protection demands for the Atlantic sturgeon, which was recently placed on the endangered species list. The huge fish was once found in the hundreds of thousands along the Delaware.
Van Rossum said that environmental groups will fight to assure protection for every remaining sturgeon. Voigt said that steps already have been taken.
"We've been treating the Atlantic sturgeon as endangered [in deepening plans] for over a year," Voigt said.
Corps forges ahead on Delaware River deepening (Delaware News Journal)
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