Posted on May 19, 2025
Friday, during an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) reacted to images of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-sanctioned dumping of dredging sediment into Mobile Bay.
Those images have raised red flags for environmental watchdogs and residents living along the bay shoreline.
Britt voiced her commitment to ensuring the sediment was “responsibly disposed.”
“We believe that we’re ‘Alabama the beautiful,’ and it needs to stay that way. So we understand the needs in deepening and widening the port, and are committed to doing that, and are committed to maintaining that dredging,” she said. “But we want to do it in a responsible way. So we have been actively engaged with the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers], actively engaged with the administration — both the previous administration and this administration, in ensuring that that sediment is responsibly disposed of. So, whether it is my commitment last year, really pushing for the restoration of oyster reefs and whatnot, we want to make sure that wildlife thrives and our coastline maintains its beauty. And we also achieve what we need to from a commerce and an opportunity space, and we believe that both of those things can be done. So yes, absolutely actively involved in those conversations, both with the Corps, with the administration, with the great people there in that region of the state and working to create solutions that are beneficial to everyone.”
Alabama’s junior U.S. Senator has been directly involved in the Port of Mobile expansion since assuming office in 2023. As part of the 2024 Water Resources Development Act, Britt added a provision requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure “not less than 70% of suitable dredged material is used for beneficial use and further calls for collaboration with local stakeholders to address dredging and dredging material placement in Mobile Harbor,” and increased funding from $50 million to $85 million for in-state environmental infrastructure projects.
Britt also included language in the 2024 appropriations bill that directed the Mobile District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “to use beneficial use methods when dredging in Mobile Bay.”
“This means repurposing sediment removed from the bottom of waterways for constructive purposes such as habitat restoration, wetland restoration, and erosion reduction,” a spokeswoman said in an email to 1819 News.
For fiscal year 2025 appropriations, Britt proposed language for $500,000 in funding for a study to understand the source and context of dramatically increased sediment in recent years that has impacted the Bay and Port of Mobile and an additional $2.5 million in funding for the restoration of oyster reefs in the Mobile Bay.
