Feds seek local partners to share Petaluma River dredging cost

Faced with a lack of federal funding to complete the long-overdue dredging of the Petaluma River, local officials and business interests are teaming up to look for solutions to unclog the silted slough. Local officials and even federal representatives acknowledge that funding for river dredging is unlikely to come out of Washington in the next three years, and they said private money will have to be used to complete the project.

But businesses that use the river and that have long benefited from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging project, are reluctant to chip in, saying the expense would erode their profits.

Earlier this month, a coalition of river users and government officials held the latest in a series of meetings at the Petaluma Yacht Club to discuss creative ideas to pay for the dredging project.

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