Posted on August 15, 2016
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-1, was correct Wednesday to note the sizable economic impact the Port of Brunswick has on the Golden Isles.
“I think anybody who goes out there and sees the logistics of the shipping business here will recognize just what economic engine that port is for our area,” Carter said after taking a trip out in the shipping channel with the Brunswick Bar Pilots, the organization that helps steer the massive cargo ships through the channel and to port.
But all is not well in the channel, and it hasn’t been for sometime. A representative for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the group responsible for maintaining it, told The News this week that Brunswick’s channel was last measured at the proper authorized depth, 38 feet at low tide in open water and 36 feet at low tide on inland waters, in 2010.
That means for six years, the pilots Carter rode with have had to battle depths as shallow as 30 feet in some cases, depths that force them to wait until higher tides at times to bring the huge ships through. This throws off schedules and, if things get bad enough, could potentially hurt business.
Luckily, to this point anyway, business does not seem to have suffered. Brunswick has become the third busiest roll on-roll off port in America and the second busiest for foreign ro-ro traffic.
For this growth to continue, Brunswick’s channel must be maintained at proper depths. As the Georgia Ports Authority, the state government and other interests were fighting for years to get matching federal funds for a channel deepening project completed in Savannah to maintain its position as a major container shipping port, Brunswick’s port channel just kept getting shallower. Some money for maintenance dredging in Brunswick has come through in the past two years. Congress approved more than $5 million to the cause in 2015, with another $3 million from the Ports Authority bringing the total to more than $8 million, but that project was cut short when the dredge crew was called to an emergency in the Mississippi River. That was also not enough to cover the total cost of getting Brunswick’s channel back to its proper depth — which has been estimated at more than $10 million.
Another $4.5 million has been earmarked for the 2017 fiscal year from Congress, but more will still be needed.
It is imperative that the channel is maintained at its proper depth so it can continue to grow. The Golden Isles relies on the Port of Brunswick for thousands of direct and indirect jobs, something of which Carter seems to be well aware.
“We need some funding to get the channel at the proper depth and keep it maintained at that depth,” he said. “Port of Brunswick is an economic engine, just like Savannah. And we have to have it operational.”
As the cliché goes, we hope Carter does everything he can to put the money where his mouth is.
Source: The Brunswick News
