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SupportTheDeepening - U.S. District Court Ruling Allows the Deepening of Delaware River to Begin Immediately
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U.S. District Court Ruling Allows the Deepening of Delaware River to Begin Immediately |
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January 28th, 2010 12:10pm |
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PHILADELPHIA - The United States District Court for the District of Delaware late today refused to block the critically needed deepening of the Delaware River to 45 feet. In a decision signed by Judge Sue L. Robinson, the Court ruled the project could proceed, but that it expected the Army Corps of Engineers to work closely with impacted states on future stages of the project.
“Today’s decision is great news for the tens of thousands of families whose livelihoods depend on Philadelphia area ports and for the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey who will reap the economic benefits of the deepening,” said John H. Estey, chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA), the lead local sponsor of the project. “We look forward to moving quickly to begin the project, protect current jobs and, hopefully, foster the creation of new ones.”
In her decision, the Judge wrote, “the public holds a vested interest in the nation's environmental preservation efforts,” but that “the public holds an equally compelling stake in the continued economic vitality of the Delaware River ports.” She noted, “Congress has made the determination that it is in the public interest to proceed with the Deepening Project.”
The combined ports of the Delaware River currently support an estimated 75,000 jobs, generating billions of dollars of economic activity and payroll wages, and contributing more than $150 million in state and local taxes. The deepening, first proposed almost two decades ago, is projected to directly create more than 8,000 new jobs and is critical to the long-term economic prospects of Philadelphia-area ports.
From a nationwide perspective alone, the deepening is projected to create $1.35 in new economic benefit for every $1 of the project’s cost. Other ports across the country, including the Port of Baltimore and Port of New York/New Jersey, have already either begun or have completed deepening projects. The Port of Baltimore recently announced a private sector investment of $750 million after the deepening. If the Delaware River is not deepened, area ports will be at a competitive disadvantage.
To find out more about the deepening, please visit www.supportthedeepening.com.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charged with the management, maintenance, marketing, and promotion of publicly owned port facilities along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, as well as strategic planning in the port district. PRPA works with its terminal operators to modernize, expand, and improve its facilities, and to market those facilities to prospective port users. Port cargoes and the activities they generate are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the Philadelphia area and throughout Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other economic benefits. |
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