01/05/06 Channel deepening update

Washington Ag January 5, 2006 Last June work began on deepening the navigation channel of the Lower Columbia River and by year's end 27 miles of the nearly 104 mile channel had been deepened from 40 to 43 feet. The Army Corps of Engineers is currently working on plans to determine how many additional miles they can deepen this year with a recently approved 15 million dollar federal appropriation for 2006. Theeme Holznagel, assistant director of the Columbia River Channel Coalition explains how much more federal funding will be needed to finish the project. Holznagel: "We know that the Corps has the capability of conducting about 40-million dollars worth of work a year. So that is what we are asking for in 2007. We will need another 25-million dollars in 2008 to actually complete this project by the end of that year." Pacific Northwest governors recently asked the Office of Management and Budget to include 40 million dollars for the project in the federal budget for fiscal year 2007. In a letter to the OMB the governors say that when completed, the deeper channel will allow draft-restricted bulk ships to carry an additional six-thousand tons of grain and container ships to carry hundreds of additional containers, making Columbia River ports and Pacific Northwest businesses and farmers better able to compete in highly competitive world markets. I'm Bob Hoff.