A fresh volley of shots has been fired in the ongoing battle surrounding efforts to dredge parts of the Delaware River to increase the depth of its shipping channel. (That’s what she said.) On one side are the dredging proponents: The US Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Pennsylvania, and the teamsters. The opposition includes a consortium of environmental groups and representatives in Delaware and New Jersey, many of whom feel that Philadelphia will benefit disproportionately from the dredging, which might stir up layers of toxic sediment in the riverbed, contaminating the environment. The opposition contends that the US Army Corps of Engineers sidestepped securing the approval of the states of Delaware and New Jersey for the project to move forward. At the end of January, US District Court Judge Sue Robinson ruled in favor of the dredging proponents; however, the opponents, led by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, National Wildlife Federation, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Delaware Nature Society, and Clean Water Action, have just filed an appeal in a new attempt to prevent the dredging from progressing. A lot of commenters on the DelawareOnline article are fired up over the issue, both for and against, but seemingly more against. In an era where the “states’ rights” argument is too often invoked for unrelated reasons, this time it’s legit: Delaware and New Jersey do not have anything obvious to gain from the dredging, and it looks like Pennsylvania (along with some special interest groups) is trying to strong-arm their little brother state/neighbor, Delaware. The fact of the matter is that this is a matter of geography: Without the cooperation of Delaware and New Jersey, Philadelphia would have no access to the Atlantic Ocean at all, and continuing along this path of détente will only lead to additional conflict in the future. Philadelphia is just not in a geographic position to harbor a larger port, and we have to deal with that. Even if we could, would we really want a local version of Elizabeth or Bayonne on our front lawn?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 6:01 pm.