Dredging the Delaware, Just Not in the Budget:  Rep.  Andrews successfully advocates to keep ACOE dredging efforts out of the President’s Budget

Haddon Heights, NJ – Earlier today, Congressman Andrews announced that for the second year in a row the Obama Administration has decided not to invest a single dollar towards the Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to deepen the Delaware. In both his State of the Union Address and his $3.834 trillion budget submitted to Congress today, the President has signaled to America that only the most economically sound projects will be funded for Fiscal Year 2011. Congressman Andrews stated the dredging project’s significant shortcomings, both economically and environmentally, continue to keep it off the President’s list of approved projects year after year.

“Funding efforts that will lose 51 cents on every dollar spent is not how America will rein in the deficit and achieve economic recovery,” Congressman Andrews said referring to the GAO’s cost benefit analysis of the deepening project. “I thank President Obama leaving the dredging project out of his budget for FY2011. Its costs extend far beyond dollars and cents – time and time again the Army Corps has failed to meet the required environmental regulations to move forward.”

Attached is the text of Congressman Andrews’ January 12, 2010 letter to OMB Director Peter Orszag requesting that the Army Corps’ dredging project remain unfunded for FY2011.


                                                                        January 12, 2010
Director Peter Orszag  
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC 20503

Dear OMB Director Orszag,

I am writing to request that President Obama not ask for funding for the Army Corps of Engineers' Delaware River Main Channel Deepening project in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget.
In June of 2002 the General Accounting Office (report # GAO-02-604) found that the Army Corps grossly misrepresented the costs and benefits of the project.  The GAO determined that the economic analysis provided for the project contained a number of "material errors," "miscalculations, invalid assumptions, and the use of significantly outdated information."  Based on the GAO's findings, the benefit to cost ratio of the project is closer to 0.49 to 1 as opposed to the 1.4 to 1 originally asserted by the Army Corps.
In late December of 2002, the Army Corps released a reanalysis of the project, claiming a new benefit to cost ratio of 1.18 to 1.  This reanalysis did not include expensive and incomplete costs for beneficial use disposal for much of the dredged spoils that would come out of the Delaware River.
Additionally, the original environmental studies for this project are outdated and require comprehensive reanalysis and updating to reflect the changes that have occurred over the past decades.  Original studies were conducted in the late 1980's with a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement completed in 1997.
I continue to remain concerned about the possibility that approval of the project is based on underrepresented economic and environmental costs of the project.  As you know, tremendous controversy surrounds the assessment of Army Corps projects nationwide and many questions remain about the Delaware River project.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.  Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.
 
Sincerely,

Robert E. Andrews

Return to the Washington Updates Page