Corbett Says More Money Needed for the Delaware River Deepening Project

Gov­er­nor Cor­bett praised the release of $16.9 mil­lion fed­eral dol­lars to con­tinue dredg­ing the Delaware river. In his annual bud­get address, Cor­bett said 75,000 jobs would be cre­ated or saved by the deep­en­ing project. The con­tro­ver­sial dredg­ing of the Delaware is opposed by envi­ron­men­tal­ists. But Cor­bett says the widen­ing of the Panama Canal means larger ships will be sail­ing up the East Coast, and will not be able to dock in Philadel­phia unless the river is deepened.

“Philadel­phia was founded as a port city,” said Cor­bett. “We intend to keep that gate open in wel­com­ing the world and its commerce.”

Cor­bett says pres­sure is still needed to release fed­eral funds to com­plete the $300 mil­lion dol­lar project.

But the project may be com­pli­cated by the recent addi­tion of the Atlantic Stur­geon on the endan­gered species list. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists hope the move will give them more ammu­ni­tion to block the deep­en­ing project.