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Issues >
Water
> Printer Version $n/a
The federal government shares with states the burden of the cost of dredging harbors around the country. Under current law, the federal share of the cost of deepening harbors ranges from 80 percent for shallow harbors to 40 percent for "deep-draft" harbors (those deeper than 45 feet). Recently,
local harbor authorities, many of which hope to dredge their
harbors to record depths, have been calling for an increase in
the federal cost-share for dredging, as well as for operating
and maintaining deep-draft harbors. These harbor authorities
want deeper dredging in order to service the largest container
ships. They reason that deeper ports will spur trade and commerce.
The opposite may occur, however. Because of the lack of regional
planning of harbor expansion, many neighboring ports are on track
for deepening, threatening to create tremendous over-capacity
for deep-draft ports. Deep- draft dredging poses serious environmental
risks and will be undertaken at the expense of federal taxpayers. Current Status During consideration of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000 (H.R. 4411), the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee included provisions to increase the federal cost-share for dredging deep-water ports. The federal cost share would have been increased from 40 percent to 65 percent. The federal cost-share for operation and maintenance would have been increased from 50 percent to 100 percent. These provisions were removed from the legislation prior to its passage. A study required by WRDA 1999 to examine the possible economic, environmental and budgetary impact of increasing the federal cost share for deep-draft dredging has not been completed to date. Project Hurts Taxpayers Nearly
every major port is considering expansion out of fear it will
lose business to its competitors. This "race
to the bottom" will cost taxpayers billions of dollars and
is likely to create a substantial over-capacity of expensive
deep ports with little deep-draft traffic to support them. Project Hurts the Environment Increased federal cost-shares will stimulate more dredging and create additional pressure for sediment disposal even if that sediment contains contaminated materials. As the total amount of material in need of disposal increases, there will be increasing demand for environmentally destructive disposal practices. As a result, more dredged materials, including some contaminated materials, will be sent to open water dumping sites, exposing fish, shellfish, wildlife and humans to harmful chemicals. Deep-draft
dredging can also increase salinity levels in aquifers necessary
for drinking water and important tidal ecosystems. For
instance, a proposed deep-draft dredging project in Savannah
Harbor, Georgia could decimate a rare tidal freshwater wetland
in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. The Department of the
Interior has observed that the proposed deepening will leave
the Refuge with only 27 percent of its original freshwater marsh.
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