Posted on August 23, 2016
With Congress on summer break and a presidential election looming once legislators return to Washington, D.C., time is running out on passage of a bill that would authorize dredging Charleston Harbor to 52 feet, giving the Port of Charleston the deepest navigable waterway on the East Coast.
That doesn’t mean the $509 million project would be dead this year — there’s a workaround involving South Carolina funds that could kickstart dredging while waiting on federal lawmakers to act.
But Barbara Melvin, the State Ports Authority executive who’s led efforts to get dredging authorized, said state legislators will push to get some floor time for the Water Resources Development Act during the busy post-Labor Day calendar. Without authorization, the federal government can’t devote money to the project.
“It’s critical that they don’t adjourn without a WRDA bill,” said Melvin, the SPA’s senior vice president of operations and terminals.
Both the House and Senate versions of the WRDA include Charleston Harbor deepening on their lists of approved Army Corps of Engineers projects. Both versions have made it past the committee level and, while Melvin said that’s helpful, “we have to pull this across the finish line.”
South Carolina Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, both Republicans, have requested time to debate the bill in September. U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, a Republican whose district includes Charleston, is expected to do the same in the House.
Graham, during last month’s groundbreaking for a new Mercedes-Benz Vans manufacturing site in North Charleston, reiterated his determination to find federal dollars for the harbor dredging.
“We’re going to do everything we can to get it to 52 feet,” he said, “if I have to get a shovel myself.”
Melvin said the House version might be the easiest to push through because “it’s a cleaner bill,” without any of the Senate provisions that might raise objections. For example, the Senate version includes revolving loan funds for drinking water and wastewater systems and financial assistance for localities with polluted drinking water, such as Flint, Mich.
Even if one of the versions makes it to the floor for debate, time constraints will make passage difficult. The House will be in session from Sept. 6 to Sept. 30 before taking another recess until after the election. Senators will be in session until Oct. 7, when they will break for the election. Both chambers plan to close out the legislative session on Dec. 16.
If a water bill doesn’t pass by then, the SPA could seek a permit from the Army Corps to begin dredging by using some of the roughly $300 million the state has already set aside as its share of funding for the project. The federal portion would then be used at some future date, after a water bill is approved.
That’s a last-resort measure that Melvin said the SPA would rather not pursue. If nothing else, she said, Congress should at least approve the list of projects included for authorization in the current water bill. In addition to the Charleston deepening, both versions of the WRDA include authorization for more than $1 billion in navigation projects at places such as Port Everglades in Florida and Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire.
Source: The Post and Courier
