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By GENE VERNACCHIO
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA
Chanting "45 feet!, 45 feet!, 45 feet!," more than 500 port workers and officials rallied Saturday in favor of a controversial proposal to dredge the Delaware River.
The demonstrators want the rivers main channel deepened from 40 to 45 feet to benefit cargo ships. But the $311 million project faces opposition from critics concerned about the potential environmental impact.
The rally took centerstage at the 6th annual Maritime Day festivities at Penn's Landing. The event also included a parade along Chestnut Street, a string band performance, a tugboat parade and a regatta.
Toting signs that read "Stop Hedging the Dredging," union members called the project vital to the ports future.
"The dredging is absolutely necessary," said Mike Kane of Cape May, a member of International Long shoremen's Association (ILA) Local 1291. "Without a dredge, were headed back to the way it was around here in 1994 - no work."
"The ships are not getting smaller, they're getting bigger," said Joe Wright, a longshoreman at the Del Monte facility in Camden, who was handing out free samples of some of the ports staples - bananas, pineapples and grapes.
Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Delaware River Port Authority have sought to deepen the shipping channel from Cape May to Camden. They hope to begin the four-year project by autumn, pending receipt of a wetlands permit from the state of Delaware and the signing of a final cooperation agreement with DRPA.
To date, Congress has appropriated $40 million for the project.
But environmentalists and legislators who oppose the dredging have convinced the Government Accounting Office to review the proposal. That process could take anywhere from a month to five years.
During the rally, speakers urged dredging supporters to lobby their elected officials.
"The river means jobs, and jobs mean taxes," said Jack McCann, president of ILA International. "There can't be a few people out there worrying about a half dozen ducks or fish or something that will hold this channel hostage. If we don't get these (bigger) ships, they'll leave. So well keep the 12 ducks, and well have 1,200 men out of work and homeless on the street."
Several speakers criticized Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., who has expressed concern about the possible impact if tainted dredge spoils are dumped in South Jersey.
"Let's put Rob Andrews 45 feet under," said Uwe Schultz, president of the Ports of the Delaware River Marine Trade Association. "This beautiful river and its ports built this region. Today, more than 50,000 lives depend on this river for their livelihood."
Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel said, "We ought to cross the Delaware, find out where Rob Andrews lives and kick him in the butt."
Andrews, contacted later Saturday, responded, "When people don't have any facts on their side, they tend to make asinine statements like that."
Dennis Rochford, president of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, said officials are working to divert some spoils that would otherwise be dumped in Gloucester County. He said the spoils could be taken instead to mines in Pennsylvania.
He also said dredge spoils can be recycled for other purposes, such as a runway extension at Philadelphia International Airport.