It’s your turn, Mr. President. Now that Congress has given long-in-coming approval to a bill authorizing $706 million for deepening 41 miles of river, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is closer than ever to a done deal.
The next big step is a presidential signature. And, given that gaining final, final, final approval for the port work has taken two decades, we’d urge President Barack Obama to sign the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) as quickly as he can find an empty table and pen.
If the POTUS has any lingering doubts, he should consult Vice President Joe Biden, who vowed earlier this year to get Savannah done “come hell or high water.” We’re sure the ever-expressive Biden can make a persuasive case for the strategic deepening of the Savannah River.
The numbers around the project should do a better job of convincing skeptics than political rhetoric ever could. The University of Georgia says that Savannah’s harbor and a sister port in Brunswick benefit Georgia’s economy by an estimated $39 billion a year. And roughly 100,000 jobs in metro Atlanta are likewise said to be reliant on the flow of trade in and out of the state’s ports.
So congressional approval of the bill authorizing funding for this and other work around the U.S. is great news for Georgia and its work force.
Once Obama inks the legislation, Army Corps of Engineers officials will need to give their final sign-off. This should be only a formality since previous Corps studies have made a persuasive case for the expansion. Then state and federal officials will decide how costs will be split for the project. Georgia has managed to squirrel away $266 million toward its share of the price, and construction will begin using that money. It’s worth noting that the water act increased the project cost by about $54 million to account for price increases since the project was authorized in 1999.
Dredging of the river could begin in December, starting on a stretch of channel extending some 15 miles into the Atlantic ocean from the river’s mouth. The other 26 miles of river won’t be deepened until significant environmental issues are addressed.
Those concerns are no small matter, and it is fitting that more than half of the pricetag for the expansion is slated to be spent on environmental mitigation work, including a system to provide oxygen to fish in the Savannah River. Corps officials say the technology planned has been successfully used elsewhere and will work here. Harbor supporters should know that environmentalists and others will be watching and will hold them to their promises. The Savannah River’s ecosystem is deserving of such diligence.
In a broad, competitive sense, the water projects bill and the work it provides for is significant because it marks a notable down payment on America’s backlog of badly needed infrastructure work. Much of that list includes rebuilding or upgrading existing structures and systems that are simply worn out, outmoded, or both. The type of investments and maintenance that successful private-sector businesses routinely budget for to ensure continued prosperity should likewise be a priority in the public sector. And, to be clear here, we mean strategic investments in vital public infrastructure, not pork intended to primarily feed bureaucracies or narrow special interests.
So, when it comes to legislation like the water projects bill, we agree with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who remarked last month that is is indeed “a significant policy achievement. It demonstrates the kind of progress that we can make when Democrats will work together with us to deal with the American people’s priorities.”
And, as Georgia’s U.S. senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson pointed out in a joint press release late last month, “Congress has confirmed what we in Georgia already knew - the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is crucial for our region and the nation as a whole.”
We concur. So quickly on toward the truly final approvals and let the work finally begin.
