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SupportTheDeepening - City council backs project
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City council backs project |
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December 20th, 2009 10:46am |
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(from The News Journal) -- Wilmington calls for state support, says deepening would bring thousands of jobs.
WILMINGTON -- City council has joined New Castle County in unanimously supporting a Delaware River dredging project.
City council members Norman D. Griffiths, Hanifa Shabazz, Stephanie T. Bolden and Michael A. Brown Sr. sponsored the resolution, which, while it has no legal impact, asks Gov. Jack Markell, Lt. Gov. Matt Denn and the Department of Natural Resources to support the project.
A similar New Castle County Council resolution did the same thing earlier this month.
Brown said he realizes that dredging could have an adverse environmental impact on the river, but said jobs for his constituents are more important. And he thinks the project can achieve the best of both worlds.
"In this modern day and age, I really think we can deepen the river and bring thousands of obviously much-needed jobs here in doing so," he said. "I also think we can monitor the digging and make sure it doesn't make the river worse off environmentally."
In addition to added jobs for Port of Wilmington workers, Brown said a deeper river could make Wilmington a destination place for the cruise-ship industry.
Mayor James M. Baker, who is in his last four-year term, said he wants to lay the groundwork for a cruise stop on the Delaware River before he leaves office.
The council's resolution notes that deepening the river by 40 to 45 feet could bring the area $500 million a year as well as up to 6,000 jobs.
Part of that is because the region is "blessed" with large interstate highways and major railroad lines within several thousand feet of the port.
The resolution, citing a 2006 study, said local and state tax coffers could reap $22 million annually if those numbers are met.
The city's executive branch does not need to sign off on council's resolutions. But Baker's Chief of Staff, William S. Montgomery, said the mayor will be sending a similar letter to state and federal officials soon.
"The letter will be pro-dredging, but will also emphasize that state and federal environmental regulators monitor the process to make sure we can strike the balance of creating jobs and protecting the environment," Montgomery said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to proceed with the project, despite opposition by Delaware and New Jersey state governments. Congress authorized the Army Corps to deepen the channel 28 years ago.
The project has long pitted business leaders against environmental advocates, who say the Delaware River is a unique source of water, fisheries and fragile natural habitats for everything from tiny juvenile eels to horseshoe crabs and giant sturgeon.
The issue came to a head in October, when the corps announced it would start work soon, ignoring Delaware's rejection of a key underwater construction permit and other permits Delaware and New Jersey require. Both states sued to stop the project, arguing in separate federal courts that the corps' plan relied on outdated studies, skipped tests and overlooked changes along the river since the release of an environmental impact statement in 1997.
The environmentalists dispute the business community's estimates about the benefits that would be reaped from the dredging that were cited in the council's resolution, passed Thursday. Dredging opponents also fear that allowing the federal Army Corps to override the state's permitting systems would set a damaging national precedent. |
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