Federal Court Approves Delaware River Deepening Project

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

July 3, 2012 | 1:27 PM

William Thomas Cain / Getty Images

Chilean fruit is unloaded from the British vessel Ice River at Philadelphia's Tioga Marine Terminal, February 24, 2006.

Environmental groups in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have engaged in court battles over the deepening project for years. On Tuesday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled against the environmentalists, paving the way for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finish the dredging the Delaware River to a depth of 40 feet. The Delaware News Journal has this from the court decision:

“For over twenty years, the Corps has devoted substantial efforts to evaluating the proposed five foot deepening project for the Delaware River. It has published three comprehensive NEPA reports, received multiple rounds of public comments, and had immeasurable communications with the relevant state and federal agencies,” the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision noted.”

The Corps has already dredged a 16-mile stretch of the river to the 40 foot level. The appeals court decision is a win for the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington, which argued they needed a deeper river to compete with the port of New York for modern ocean-going vessels.
But environmentalists worry about the impact on water quality and endangered species and sought an updated environmental review. The Corps had conducted its main review 12 years ago. Maya van Rossum, with the Delaware Riverkeeper, says they’re disappointed by the decision.
“An injustice has been perpetrated on all of the communities that depend upon the Delaware River for clean water, healthy fish, and jobs worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” said van Rossum. “Sadly, the judges drew conclusions that were simply unsupported by the facts in manipulating their ultimate findings.”
Van Rossum says the environmental groups involved in the lawsuit plan to continue their fight. In the meantime, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to open bids on dredging a 9.5 mile stretch of river next month.