Page 34: of Marine News Magazine (February 2011)

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Reining in federal spending is more than a pocketbook issue for marine companies and exporters who fear their operations will be slowed and stuck in the mud because of less money for dredging on the lower Mississippi River this year. With fewer dollars in hand, the U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers — the agency responsible for dredging — could struggle to maintain normal operations from

Baton Rouge and New Orleans south.

This year, the Corps says it can't count on supplemen- tal, emergency funds that it received from Congress in the past to fill out its dredging budget. And the Corps may no longer be able shift money from other projects to meet dredging needs.

River pilots, exporters, U.S. grain growers and others have weighed in on the matter. A group of national grain associations, along with exporters Cargill, Inc. and Bunge

North America, sent a Dec. 14 letter to the Army Corps stating their worries that the agency won't be able to transfer funds within its budget. They asked that the

Corps' money be shifted to dredging as needed. The group also warned that fewer funds for lower Mississippi dredging could hamper President Obama's goal of dou- bling U.S. exports by 2015.

Chris Bonura, spokesman for the Port of New Orleans, said “we've been closely following federal dredging-budg- et issues.” He explained that President Obama's budget allocated $63 million to the Army Corps to operate and maintain the lower Mississippi in all five deepwater ports in fiscal 2011. Bonura said that in recent years, however, the average price tag for dredging in the lower river was

Exporters Fret over Fewer Funds for

Lower Mississippi Dredging

By Susan Buchanan

Funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was used to dredge the New Orleans Harbor. The oper- ation will continue 24/7 until complete.

Photograph courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District 34 MN February 2011