N.J. sues to stop Del. River dredging

Three days after the State of Delaware sued to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from deepening the Delaware River, the New Jersey Attorney General today also filed a lawsuit to stop the project.

Attorney General Anne Milgram, at the direction of Gov. Corzine, filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.

Corzine, who faces a tough reelection bid with voters tomorrow, threatened to sue last week if the Army Corps did not suspend plans to deepen the main shipping channel of the river by five feet, to 45 feet, as early as January.

"The Army Corps has decided to go ahead with its completely irresponsible plan to circumvent New Jersey's strong environmental protection processes and plow blindly ahead," Corzine said in a statement today. "I cannot allow the people of South Jersey to have these dredge spoils dumped on them."

Although dredge material would be taken initially to federal sites, including New Jersey, Gov. Rendell has said repeatedly that Pennsylvania would remove and keep any dredge spoils that New Jersey or Delaware did not want.

Dredging a 103-mile stretch of the Delaware five additional feet has become a quagmire of egos and competing interests. Rendell and Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) say that deepening the river is essential to Pennsylvania's economy, creating jobs and future shipping.

New Jersey has been outspoken about its concerns of possible contaminants in the spoils that were to be dumped in the Garden State.

In addition, shipping interests in North Jersey do not want Philadelphia's port to get bigger ships that might dock, instead, in New York and in Newark, N.J.

Delaware Attorney General Joseph R. "Beau" Biden, son of Vice President Biden, has been caught between strong environmental interests, on one hand, and Delaware businesses, on the other. Two Delaware Chambers of Commerce have urged Gov. Jack Markell to support the river deepening as being essential to the growth of Delaware's economy and the Port of Wilmington.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said today in a statements: "We are glad New Jersey is suing over the Delaware deepening, but Gov. Corzine should be urging the president to kill this project."

"The president can do right by stopping this abuse and the waste of taxpayer money," Tittel said.

On Oct. 23, Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant Army secretary for civil works, decided to proceed with the project, although Delaware denied a permit for the work in July, eight years after the Army Corps applied for it.

Darcy concluded, as had her predecessor, John Woodley, in April, that federal supremacy trumped the need for state approval in order to protect interstate navigation.

Rendell and Specter insist that years of environmental studies have concluded there is no environmental harm to deepening the channel, and that the river is dredged every year to maintain the current 40-foot depth.

The Army Corps has said it will proceed unless barred by an injunction through litigation.