Dredging budgets run aground - Boat U.S. Reports

Boat/US Magazine, May, 2002

Funds for dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are pretty much zeroed out in President Bush's current budget and in no place will this hit boaters harder than along Florida portions of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

According to the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND), the decision reverses a long-term trend of providing at least $3 million annually for maintenance dredging along the state's portion of the IGW.

"To do the job right actually requires about $7.8 million annually," says David Roach, Executive Director of FIND. "So to have absolutely no federal dollars means we're going to fall farther behind, faster."

One section that is in desperate need of dredging, Roach says, is in the vicinity of Ponce Inlet south of Daytona, FL. The main ICW channel there is authorized at a depth of 12 feet but parts of it have shoaled to less than four feet, according to boaters filing condition reports on the BoatU.S. Web site (www.boatus.com/gov/icw_survey.htm).

To bring this 10-mile section back to a depth of 12 feet and a width of 125 feet will cost $10.6 million. Roach said his agency would press Congress to add that money to the Corps budget during the appropriations process.

According to Rosemary Lynch, executive director of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association (AIWA), the rest of the ICW fared no better in the current budget for the 2003 federal fiscal year.

"Funding for the ICW has been pretty much zeroed out in each of the five Army Corps districts in the South Atlantic Division," Lynch says.

BoatU.S. is working with AIWA to focus congressional attention on this critical recreational and commercial waterway.