Judge removes obstacles to dredging Delware River shipping channel

It's a go for deepening 102 miles of the Delaware River navigation channel an additional five feet to allow for bigger ships and commerce, a judge in Delaware has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson, who in January allowed the $300 million deepening to start along an 11-mile stretch south of Wilmington, also retained control by enjoining future aspects until further order of the court.

On Wednesday, she lifted that injunction, ruled that the entire project could proceed, and denied a motion by the State of Delaware and environmental groups seeking a stay of future dredging of the river from 40 to 45 feet between Philadelphia and the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

The 31-page opinion was a victory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the dredging's local sponsors, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.

Robinson tossed out Delaware's case, including arguments that deepening the channel would cause that state and aquatic life in the river "significant and irreparable" environmental harm.

The first area of deepening work is completed. Next, the effort will proceed off northern Delaware and southern Pennsylvania, near Marcus Hook. The project is scheduled for completion in 2015.

A parallel lawsuit against the deepening, brought by the State of New Jersey and environmental groups, is still outstanding in Trenton. U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano has given the parties until Dec. 3 to settle their differences and has said he is prepared to rule if they do not.

With Robinson's injunction lifted, dredging contracts can be consolidated, and the work can proceed. The next phase will not begin before summer, Philadelphia port authority engineer Lisa Magee said.

"We had a contract on the street, and we canceled it because of the uncertainty of the litigation," Magee said. The Army corps must abide by environmental restrictions and can dredge only during certain times of the year in particular parts of the river, she said.

The corps will likely now "repackage and expand how much work they are going to bid out, so there is no loss in project time," said the port authority's chief counsel, Gregory Iannarelli. "This ruling really has changed the landscape about going forward."

Iannarelli said money had been allocated for the next phase.

"We are definitely able to continue forward. The question is, in the federal budget, how that shakes out going forward," he said. "Once the channel-deepening litigation is resolved, it makes it a lot easier to go to Washington and say, 'This project is a go.' "

In her Jan. 27 ruling, Robinson said the consequences of the litigation were "significant." On the one hand, she wrote, the public has a vested interest in environmental preservation, but "an equally compelling" interest in "the continued economic vitality of the Delaware River ports."

"Based on the volume of business passing through these ports, any loss in market share due to the ports' incapacity to handle ships of a certain draft will harm the local economy," the judge wrote. "Congress has made the determination that it is in the public interest to proceed."

The combined ports of the Delaware River support about 75,000 jobs, produce billions in revenue and payroll wages, and contribute more than $150 million in state and local taxes, the court noted.

Read the judge's ruling in the dredging case at http://go.philly.com/dredge (.pdf)EndText