ORMA News 2004

South County Chronicle Article

Thanks to Bob Wilcox for tipping us to this interesting article.

Environmental Assessment of Occoquan Dredging Released
By Dave Harned

In April, the Army Corps of Engineers released a decision document and environmental assessment for widening and deepening the 6 mile long navigation channel of the Occoquan River between the Potomac River and the Town of Occoquan. Originally constructed in 1908 as 6 feet deep and 150 feet wide, narrowing to 100 feet wide between Taylor's Point and Occoquan, increasing commercial and recreational traffic, in company with frequent groundings, have made it clear that the channel is too shallow.

In response to these problems, Congressman Davis of Virginia's 11th District sponsored appropriations to widen and deepen the channel as necessary to accommodate current commercial and recreational users.

The Baltimore District of the Corps of Engineers studied twelve different combinations of width, depth and dredged material disposal. These included six alternatives that would have used the dredged material to construct wetlands adjacent to Mason Neck State Park, along with breakwaters to prevent further erosion of nearby parkland. These alternatives were made feasible by the relatively benign chemical character of the dredged material.

Environmental consequences from any of the twelve alternatives were judged minor and of short duration while the improved channel would serve marine traffic for many more years.

The alternative selected for implementation is for a 9-foot deep channel of the same 150 foot width, also narrowing to 100 feet beyond Taylor's Point, with 31,200 cubic yards of dredged material to be disposed on land at the Prince William County landfill. The selection was made on the basis of the ratio of estimated project benefits to estimated project cost. The costlier approach of using the dredged material for wetlands adjacent to the State Park favored landfill disposal.

This plan is pending approval by the Corps of Engineers. It is estimated to cost about $2 million dollars based on 2003 figures. Of this 90% would be Federal appropriations and 5% each would be contributed by Fairfax and Prince William Counties.

The Corps intends to begin dredging work in October of this year and to finish in March of 2005.

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Potomac News Article

Hello All:
The Potomac News has published an article which adds the Occoquan dredging project, so near to us all, to a list of "pork" projects.

The article says that only 100 boaters would benefit. I have been contacted by Congressman Davis' office on this to highlight the need for voters to communicate their views on this issue.

I would like each of you to do two things:
1) forward this message to all who need to see it.
2) Write a letter to the editor of the Potomac News and tell the editors that the statistics are in error, that more than 2200 boats and as many as 10,000 voters are interested in the dredging. Tell them that the commerce of the Occoquan powers businesses, Yacht Clubs, Marinas, and restaurants to the tune of tens, if not hundreds of Millions of dollars which flow through the local economy, that the multiplier effect of that commerce generates a lot of tax revenue for Prince William County, and Fairfax County, and that the dredging is not a "pork" issue, it is an issue legitimized for several years by the navigation difficulties of the River, and the need to maintain a navigable channel.

This issue is important, and I recommend you consider the possibility that this small project will be cancelled without words and phone calls and letters.. This is a call to action.

For each Commodore of each Yacht Club, each business owner affected, every boater who ever ran aground in the Occoquan Channel, I recommend you write to the Potomac News and to Congressman Tom Davis' office affirming the need to keep the dredging of the Occoquan River on-track and funded. If the US can afford to pay for re-building another country and not maintain the one we live-in, we have a huge problem. Your words and action will help highlight the number of voters who care about the Occoquan River as a treasure to be preserved and maintained.

Read the ORMA response.

Thanks// Chris Webster
ORMA
703.449.2760 (w)
571.214.3196 (c)

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Econometrics of the Occoquan Dredging

There is an interesting statistic that I would like to share with all of you. The Salisbury Towing Company that operates the Capt Tom Tugs moves sand from the quarry in Maryland to the location just under the Rt One Bridge in Woodbridge, about once a day. We all know that. Did you ever wonder what would happen if they could not do that because the river was too shallow? We have come to learn that they move the equivalent of Twenty Thousand Truckloads of sand in a year with the barge and tug. This is a documented statistic. Imagine twenty thousand more dump trucks crossing the Wilson bridge, adding to the sprawl and crawl causing how many more minutes of delay for commuters and costing that much more for fuel etc. (that's about 350+ in a week's time, and add to that the cost of moving the material over land, which they say is ten times as much as by-water, and the economic impact of NOT having the Occoquan dredging project completed becomes a bit more clear and compelling. We are piecing together bits if information in order to tell the story in terms non-boaters can understand. If you wish to contribute facts or figures, please send them to us.

Chris W. Webster Coordinator, ORMA

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