The Philadelphia Inquirer
www.inq.philly.com

Drawing lines in sand on dredging

By Kaitlin Gurney
Monday, January 8, 2001

In South Jersey, the word dredge has become a political fireball, conjuring up images of 50-foot piles of contaminated muck on the Delaware River's banks.

Elected officials, from U.S. senators to council members in the smallest municipalities, have spoken with one voice: "We don't want it here."

A proposed $311 million project would deepen the river channel from 40 to 45 feet, the first such change since World War II. Over four years, hydraulic dredges would suck up 33 million cubic yards of river bottom for 108 miles, from the Delaware Bay to Philadelphia. The river must be dredged to accommodate larger ships and keep its ports competitive, the Army Corps of Engineers has said.

In an effort to make the project more palatable to politicians and environmentalists, the Delaware River Port Authority has come up with a strategy called "beneficial reuse." With this concept, the authority has said, it might not have to buy any land to dispose of the river material that the Army Corps of Engineers will dredge beginning as early as July.

If marketed for covering old mines and serving as fill for highway construction, dredge material might even become a valuable commodity, said Joe Diemer, spokesman for the DRPA, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania agency serving as local sponsor of the dredging project.

"Our days of stockpiling dredge material along the shore are over," Diemer said. "We're looking to reuse the material to the greatest degree possible."

But the idea of beneficial reuse faces some obstacles, such as the expense of carting the material to its destination, said Rich Chlan, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers' Philadelphia branch.

Dredge material also has to dry out on land before it can be reused, meaning the DRPA might need to acquire sites for temporary storage, Chlan said.

The authority is still considering potential disposal sites in Salem County and Logan Township, Gloucester County, Diemer said, but hopes it won't have to use them.

Unless the DRPA can satisfy U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli (D., N.J.), U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews (D., N.J.) and representatives from Delaware, who have stated their concerns, the project may never begin.

"Our intent isn't to kill this project, but we will not have South Jersey become a dumping ground for Philly," said Eric Shuffler, Torricelli's chief of staff.

Shuffler attributed the DRPA's abrupt switch, from scouring for disposal sites to touting beneficial reuse, to talks between Torricelli and agency representatives last summer. Torricelli had objected to South Jersey's receiving most of the potentially contaminated dredge material.

The federal government appropriated $39 million toward the project last year but plans to hold a budget hearing next year and every year after until its $211 million share has been paid. This year's money is not guaranteed, Shuffler said, particularly if environmentalists and South Jersey politicians continue to raise questions about the project.

State funding has also hit snags. While the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for getting federal funding, the DRPA is to raise $100 million and is relying on state support for about half. Pennsylvania has appropriated its $15 million share, but neither New Jersey nor Delaware has approved funding.

A New Jersey bill for $13 million is stalled in the state Senate's Economic Growth, Agriculture and Tourism Committee and will not be considered until February, at the earliest, committee staff reported.

Delaware won't fund the project until the Army Corps of Engineers has applied for wetlands-use permits, which it has agreed to do, said Sarah W. Cooksey of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The application process is to include public hearings, she said.

But the DRPA does not need New Jersey or Delaware's money before the project begins, Diemer said. It could come later - or not at all - and the port authority could still manage, he added.

Environmentalists argue that the only businesses to gain from the dredging would be Pennsylvania oil companies, which could use larger tankers once the project was complete.

"Oil is nice," Diemer said, "but 80 percent of the jobs on the river have very little to do with oil. It's in the economic interest of all three states to have a modern port city."

The DRPA's main concern before it signs a cooperative agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers, indicating that the project could begin, is securing beneficial uses or disposal sites for the dredge material, Diemer said.

Possible sites include runways at Philadelphia International Airport, highway-construction projects, wetlands restoration, and the covering of old Pennsylvania mines that have a risk of contamination.

The dredging project could begin in July if the DRPA settles its financial and disposal problems and signs the cooperative agreement, Chlan said.

Maya Van Rossum, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, oversees an environmental alliance that includes the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society and has vowed to fight the dredging until it is stopped.

The alliance has asked for a review of the project by an independent agency, such as the U.S. General Accounting Office, that could weigh the dredging's environmental impact and determine its economic necessity.

"The Army Corps and the DRPA are trying to lull the public into thinking this is a done deal," Van Rossum said, "but I believe deeply that, once this is independently reviewed, no one in their right mind would fund this project."