Officials threaten lawsuits

jurisdiction over the permit, which was issued by a different agency. Mediation was ordered a few days later between the commission, environmentalists and the corps to determine how to resolve the permitting snarl.

The Maritime Commission’s stance on the depth is a major sticking point in that effort.

The financial stakes for Atlanta and Georgia, though, aren’t in dispute. The statewide economic impact of Savannah, and its sister port in Brunswick, is pegged at $39 billion a year, according to the University of Georgia. It said about 100,000 jobs across metro Atlanta, a major distribution hub, depend on the imports and exports that flow through the two ports.

The $652 million deepening project — $181 mil- lion of it to be covered by Georgia taxpayers — is aimed at ensuring the Savannah port can handle ever-larger container ships. Dredging is slated to start next summer and be completed by 2016.

In a 2010 cost-benefit analysis, the corps said a 47-foot depth would result in a net benefit of $160 million each year to the economy by creating access for bigger ships. The 45-foot depth preferred by South Carolina, the report said, would produce $136 million in annual benefits – or about 86 percent of the benefits from 47 feet.

The corps released its final cost-benefit analysis last December and determined that a depth of 47 feet would actually result in an annual net benefit of $174 million. It didn’t update benefits for lower depths.

“We concluded the 47foot depth of the project is technically feasible, economically justified, cost effective, in accordance with applicable environmental statutes, and in the public interest,” said corps spokesman Billy Birdwell.

Deepening would translate into more than 11,000 construction and construction-related jobs, according to the corps.

Opponents say the difference between 45 and 47 feet is huge. The deeper the river, the harder it is for oxygen to reach lower depths. Fish and other aquatic life suffer.

“It is clear that the 44and 45-foot alternatives would have much lower impacts on fish and wildlife resources,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services reported.

At 45 feet, according to corps calculations, 4.6 percent of endangered adult sturgeon along the dredged route will die. At 47 feet, 6.9 percent will. The corps also says 223 acres of freshwater marsh will be lost to the project at 47 feet, vs. 32 acres at 45 feet.

The corps will spend $292 million mitigating environmental damage – pumping oxygen into the river, repopulating sturgeon and replacing marshland with upriver land purchases.

Col. Jeffrey Hall, in charge of the project for the corps, noted that a bevy of state and federal agencies have signed off on the project.

Maritime Commis- sion members, including Grooms, say an additional two feet of muck will irreparably harm the fragile coastal ecosystem. Grooms vows a lengthy legal battle.

“Historically, when things get tied down in court, they take a while,” he said. “I am prepared, and will urge members of the Savannah River Maritime Commission, to do exactly what we’re doing until the (deepening) project is changed.”