See pictures, a video and a project-by-project description of everything the $706 million Savannah port deeping includes in the Sunday business section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Staff writer Dan Chapman has been covering this story for more than a decade and tells the story that no one else can.
Let the Super Scoop begin.
After twenty years of study, bureaucratic delays, environmental roadblocks and political shenanigans, the deepening of the Savannah River – the state’s most critical development project in decades — could get underway by the end of the year.
State and federal negotiators are putting final touches on agreements covering $706 million worth of environmental, engineering and financial responsibilities that the two will take on.
A boatload of Georgia politicians, including U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, will bask in the project’s long-awaited glory Wednesday as the documents are signed.
“I’m delighted personally and pleased for the state of Georgia because of the jobs it will provide and the vitality it will create,” Isakson said. “It’s a day of pride for our state that this has been accomplished, and it will allow us to continue our leadership as the business capital and economic capital of the Southeast.”
Yet hurdles remain before ever-larger container ships begin plying the narrow, winding and relatively shallow Savannah River. Workers will have to complete massive dredging, engineering and environmental mitigation projects within five years for the project to succeed. And $400 million must still be obtained from Washington to scoop out 41-miles of channel five feet deeper, and to protect endangered plants and animals. Environmentalist will be watching.
“It’s a major infrastructure project that will have serious consequences for a river that has already been severely damaged over time by deepenings and other industrial activities,” said Chris DeScherer, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center which fought the project. “The river is at a tipping point. How much more can it take?”
Once 24 million cubic yards of riverbottom muck are dredged, enough to fill seven Georgia Domes, ships that each carry upwards of 10,000 steel containers can come and go, filled with goods such as inbound toys from China and outbound kaolin going to Japan.
The ports of Savannah and Brunswick contribute $39 billion annually to Georgia’s economy, according to the University of Georgia. Metro Atlanta alone tallies 100,000 jobs related to the port. The Army Corps of Engineers says every dollar spent on the project will return $5.50 in economic benefit to the nation, or $174 million annually. But the benefits accrue to shippers and retailers like Home Depot and Target who gain time and save money with a faster-to-run river.
“This is one of the most critical projects we’ve had in decades,” Deal said in an interview. “We just want to get started. That’s the critical thing right now. It’s a three to three-and-a-half year project, and we need to move as quickly as possible because the new Panama Canal is progressing along.”
The corps, in 2012, decided a 47-foot river depth made the most economic and environmental sense, while state and port officials were keen to go to 50 feet. The Panama Canal is digging to 50 feet to accommodate the larger freighters. Competitor ports in Charleston and Miami also seek 50-foot depths.
“Obviously, it would without question be better to have more water than less water,” said John Martin, a port consultant in Pennsylvania. “Savannah is gearing up to be the dominant port on the Atlantic. That could be challenging (with) New York, Baltimore and Norfolk to the north.”
The Project Partnership Agreement describes who — state or federal taxpayers — pays for what, as well as start and end dates for each piece of the project. Corps spokesman Russell Wicke said Friday the document is all but in its final form, though it could change in last-minute tinkering.
Officials know a deeper river will mean changes. It will draw more saltwater upstream; freshwater wetlands will turn brackish. Endangered Sturgeon and other fish will have greater difficulty breathing and spawning. Cadmium-laced river muck will be deposited in South Carolina. And Savannah’s drinking water could, on rare occasions, taste bad.
To mitigate the damage,the corps and Georgia will buy 2,200 acres of wetlands to add to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Oxygen will be pumped into the river’s depths to help the fish. A ladder around a lock and dam near Augusta, 180 miles upriver, will allow the sturgeon to reach breeding grounds. A new reservoir will be built to store fresh water. About half of the $706 million goes to mitigate environmental harm caused by the unnatural deepening.
“We plan to remain engaged to ensure that the mitigation efforts work as the corps says they will,” said DeScherer, the environmental attorney.
Along with the channel deepening, the ship-turning basin alongside the Garden City terminal will be expanded. Three stretches of river bank will be widened. And the remains of the CSS Georgia, a Civil War ironclad, will be excavated.
Georgia taxpayers have already pumped $266 million into the project. The ports authority will kick in $34 million for additional environmental costs prompted by a lawsuit. Georgia’s transportation department will donate $10 million worth of land as part of the settlement.
Bart Gobeil, the governor’s chief operating officer who also serves on the ports authority board, said Deal doesn’t “…at this time anticipate recommending more state dollars” for the project. Congress, which has only appropriated a few million dollars, is on the hook for roughly $400 million more.
The corps has already sent out two bids for the work, Gobeil said, and the governor hopes the dredging could begin later this year.
There’s no guarantee, given Washington’s budgetary and political problems, that the project will receive $80 million a year over five years to finish. Last fiscal year, for example, the Obama administration requested only $97 million for all coastal navigation projects.
“It’s a highly political process,” said Don Sweeney, a former corps economist who teaches at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. “You would like to believe that the president would only propose expenditures on projects that he deems most worthy and that Congress would add projects based on merit. But sometimes funds get allocated for political purposes.”
Savannah backers say their project’s cost-to-benefit ratio will place it atop the president’s and Congress’ dredging wish list. Sweeney, for one, doubts the nearly six-to-one return on investment scenario put forth by the corps. He adds, though, that Savannah is the first port in the Southeast ready with federal approval to dig deep.
Sen. Isakson, who labels the deepening his most important senatorial challenge, expects the money to flow.
“We might have $150 million one year and $25 million another year, but over the life of the project we’ll get $400 million,” he said.
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