|
|
|
Delaware River
Ride the Ducks will return to the Delaware River, according to a city press release.
This follow last year's tragic accident involving Ride the Ducks, in which a barge struck one of the tour boats, resulting in the death of two Hungarian visitors. Operations on the Delaware have ceased since then.
"Every measure has been considered and will be followed to provide for the safety of Philadelphians and our visitors," said managing director Richard Negrin in the release.
The Managing Director's office says Ride the Ducks will return with "improved safety procedures" and "enhanced operating, communications and trianing standards." They include barring Ride the Ducks boats from entering the water when a barge is within a half nautical mile. "Quackers" — aka those famous noisemakers — also won't be given out until the end of the tour.
Last year, some ex-employees of Ride of the Ducks' Baltimore operations told City Paper the company's safety standards are "abysmal." Ride the Ducks refuted this.
See above for an image of where Ride the Ducks will operate, as provided by the city.
 |
| Neal Santos |
On July 13 and 14, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) held public hearings on a topic that may or may not ever go away: the dredging of the Delaware River. Why, you ask, is the DNREC still holding hearings on the project, after the Army Corps of Engineers already finished deepening an 11-mile segment of the river just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge and ending at the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal? Well, the Army Corps applied for permits from Delaware in March of this year, in order to deepen additional parts of the channel that our neighbor state ostensibly has some modicum of jurisdiction over; the project is pointless unless the whole thing is dredged.
The DNREC just released the transcripts from July 13 and 14's hearings — you can download them by clicking here and here — and, for the most part, they're exactly what you'd expect. In the most black-and-white fashion imaginable, Teamsters line up on one side and environmentalists shuffle to the other. But there's one point that both sides should read, made by William Moyer, a member of the advocacy committee of the Delaware Nature Society. He bluntly asserts that the hearings are a big sham, and the Army Corps is going to do what it wants, when it wants — a charge that Teamsters and environmentalists alike should, in theory, care about:
Our presence at this hearing will have no effect on the outcome of this permit application, and no amount of public testimony in opposition to the deepening project is going to be utilized in making a permit decision. DNREC is in the proverbial lose/lose situation with respect to this application. If it denies a permit, the Corps of Engineers will return to Federal District Court and ask Judge Robinson to again give her permission to proceed with completing the dredging in the Delaware, as she did for the dredging that the Corps recently completed in Delaware waters in reach C.
â¦
If DNREC issues a permit with conditions which cannot be met, the Corps will simply proceed with the dredging, arguing yet again that it really doesn't need a permit from Delaware, and that they only applied in, quote, "a spirit of comity."
To quote from Colonel Tickner's December 4, 2004 letter to then Senator Biden, Senator Carper, and Representative Castle ⦠"I really think they meant to say they applied in the spirit of comedy."
 |
| Photo | Neal Santos |
| Supporters of the Delaware River deepening, like the longshoreman pictured, say it'll keep the ports competitive. Environmentalists, as well as officials from New Jersey and Delaware, disagree. |
Here's your chance to be heard.
Starting today at 6 p.m. and again tomorrow at the same time, the public can weigh in on the Army Corps' Delaware River deepening project in the Longwood Room at Delaware State Universitys Bank of America Building in Dover, Del. The project began months ago, but Delaware, New Jersey and various environmental groups are trying to block future work through lawsuits. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will be taking down public input from this week's two meetings.
At the last public meeting on the Delaware River dredging, in 2001, hundreds showed up. We'll keep you posted on how hot these two meetings are.
 |
| Courtesy of Pennsylvania DCNR |
When City Paper's Isaiah Thompson wrote a bang-up piece on companies drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, and the environmental and political concerns that go along with it, a brilliant commenter named "Why Whyserson" said thusly: "This would be an important story in Philadelphia if they were drilling in Fairmount Park."
As it turns out, it's not as easy as that. (Can you believe someone commenting on a website oversimplified things?!) If companies drill in the Delaware River Basin, aka our watershed, this indeed will be quite an important story in Philly and in fact, conservation officials say that about 300 square miles of watershed land have already been leased.
All of these details can get rather complicated, which is why Damascus Citizens for Sustainability is hosting a lecture titled "Gas Mining: What is there to be worried about?" tonight from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Blauvelt Theatre at the Friends Select School (17th Street and Ben Franklin Parkway). It will address how drilling could affect Philly's water, and what City Council and citizens can do. Mr. Whyserson, why not join us?
Goodness gracious, I am so upset I missed that but I was scubadiving in the Gulf of Mexico until about 9:30. Does Damascus Citizens for Sustainability have a mailing list? God forbid I miss their next lecture. Do I have to be Syrian to join?
Which is weird, cause the GAO just told us it wasn't gonna go public for another month. No matter. You can read all of it here, and though we haven't had time to sort through all of it yet, here are a few highlights:
The reanalysiss crude oil benefit assumptions are not consistent with current market and industry conditions and future outlook, which raises questions about the reliability of the reanalysiss crude oil benefit estimate.
Also:
The reanalysiss containerized cargo benefit assumptions may not fully reflect current conditions and cannot be adequately assessed without additional information.
However:
The Corps reanalysis addressed many of the limitations that we had identified in 2002 in the projects original economic analysis by using more recent information to correct invalid assumptions and outdated data, recalculating benefits and costs to correct miscalculations, and accounting for some of the economic uncertainty associated with the project. In addition, as we recommended, the Corps had independent experts review the reanalysis before submitting it to Congress.
Sez Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper who is staunchly against the dredging project, in a press release: "This report confirms that the Army Corps still has not provided an accurate picture of the Delaware deepening and its ramifications for our region. If the Army Corps had spent as much time in providing accurate economic and environmental analyses as it has in evading the requirements of environmental protection laws, we would have an accurate picture of the impacts of this project."
We'll report back with a more thorough analysis of the report early next week.
Everyone should read the entire GAO report. Environmentalist may say and do anything to block this project. Dont fall for environmental activist groups taking bits of text out of context to promote their agenda. There is something that the GAO does not take into consideration - all the potential growth in the port region. Once the channels are dredged to the proper depth, industry investment will create many good paying jobs. It is only common sense to believe that this will happen. What this country needs is JOBS! President IUOE Local 25
Those environmentalists/economist opposed to dredging should think "GREEN" when referring to maritime highways. FACT the most efficient way to move US goods is our aquatic highways. Railroads, trucks & planes play their important economic roles, but there is no better GREEN way than the waterways. Reduce our trade deficit, reliance on foreign oil & emissions US marine highway trade yield positive benefits. One 15-barge tow removes 1,050 trucks from highways. 1-gallon of fuel = 1-ton of cargo 576 miles on a barge a railcar 413, & by truck 155. By 2035, freight volume doubles. Goods to Phil. region arrive via other ports over land 95% of trade goes through only 36 ports & Phil port could play a major role providing tens-of-thousands of jobs. Funding loses harm the seaport & thousands of jobs. With trade doubling within 15-years, we may gain back whats been lost. Once dredged taxpayer funding is minimal in comparison to future private industry seaport investment. President IUOE Local 25
if you read Mikesell's "Fiscal Administration and Analysis" one of the leading public-sector finance textbooks, you will find that Cost-Benefit Analysis suffers from the limitation that it fails to account for benefits and costs external to the specific project. Thus, the concerns of the Riverkeepers are unlikely to be addressed by such an approach, regardless of the accuracy of the inputs. This is a basic problem of economics (failure to account for 'externalities') and one of the reasons why disputes between the Riverkeepers and the Corp result in a lot of talking past each other...They are quite literally speaking different lexicons.
Holly, here's a highlight:
Dredging, as it stands now according to the report, would cost $22.3 million a year while bring in revenues of around $30.1 million/yr, for a benefit to cost ratio of $1.35 made/$1 spent. The Corps originally said $1.40/$1, the gov't asks that a project at least bring in as much as it costs on a 1:1 basis. The project, as it stands now, is economically viable.
Crude oil is a commodity that may in part be affected by the downturn in the economy. As it improves, so will imports, and so will the analysis of how much this project is worth.[...] previous Chicago TGs also facing M/F transit passes problem next GAO report on Delaware River dredging is out now! [...]
Why should it come down to money? Sure a project can project that it will make X dollars, and cost Y dollars to make, that is the simplest part. Dredgeing will cause the envirerment change, and possibly harm. Ecosystems are fragile, and the more we mess with them, the more damage we cause. There is already plenty of money made off of that river, from more natural, less harmful ways. Any major dredgeing risks damageing fishing, recreation, tourism, and all to maybe make some one 40 cents on the dollar. Do they take into account the jobs lost, say from the rail road, trucking, and the industry support for those methods of shipping. Pull the curtain back and see who is really pushing for this? It is the same people, that have taken alot of good paying jobs, to countries with little or no concern for the envirerment, or the people who work and live there. Is this just another way they push the expense of makeing more money for themselves off onto the people here? They stand to save themselves a fortune in shipping costs, and the heck with this country, or its laws for protecting it's land, and lack of laws, protecting it's jobs. For every job that is created, makeing it cheaper to bring in goods from other countries, we give up jobs here manufactoring the same products.
 |
| Photo | Neal Santos |
UPDATE: The report is out now! Check here for more information.
The dredging of the Delaware River, as we all know, is well under way.
But the Government Accountability Office, which in 2002 put out a report saying the Army Corps overstated the dredging's economic benefits by $26.8 million, was due to release a reanalysis of the Corps' new economic claims at the end of March.
Here it is April, though, and it isn't out yet. The Clog just got off the phone with a GAO spokesperson, and it turns out that the GAO has indeed completed the report, and delivered it to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. But the committee asked for a 30-day restriction, which means that the report won't be made public until the end of April.
And that means we'll have to wait another month to know if a project that's already happening is indeed worth our money.
PREVIOUSLY >> Risk and Reward: Dredging the Delaware might not bring as many jobs as proponents claim.
[...] previous GAO report on Delaware River dredging won’t be made public until end of April [...]
Straight from the office of Ed Voigt, chief of public and legislative affairs for the Army Corps of Engineers:
Our contractor, Norfolk Dredging Co., will begin deepening at 12 noon today, March 1, 2010, in the Delaware River federal channel just north of Reedy Point (the east end of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal).
It's kind of hard to believe that this thing that's been 20 years in the making is actually happening. Keep in mind, though, that this contract to Norfolk Dredging Co. has been awarded for just "Reach C" of the channel only an 11-mile stretch of the 100-mile-long project. (And, everyone agrees, only deepening 11 miles would benefit absolutely no one.) Also, the Corps only has full funding for "Reach C," and a review by the Government Accountability Office of the Army Corps' current economic analysis of the project is due out this month which, depending on its outcome, could seriously affect how much more of the project Congress decides to fund.
RELATED: Risk and Reward: Dredging the Delaware may not bring as many jobs as proponents claim
[...] The dredging of the Delaware River, as we all know, is well under way. [...]
I am the author of a book about the delaware river water war, and have a keen interest in the expanded use of the river thru its channels becoming wider and deeper.As for drinking water users can get safer and better quality water above the tidal line where channelization is not needed ,now or never. The Phila: Water Treatment use has too long delayed the expansion of the Delaware channels opening much greater industry benefiting the area . They should move their water intake upstream and benefit from non-carcenogenic drinking water.
It looks as though the Army Corps of Engineers may may finally begin deepening the Delaware River this Friday, for realsies.
As we told you before, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and four other environmental groups filed an appeal earlier this month with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the deepening project; in response, the Army Corps agreed to not begin deepening until Feb. 26. The environmental groups then filed a stay-pending appeal to keep the deepening project from moving forward whatsoever before the court could consider their original appeal in full.
Well, Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum just informed the Clog that the court did not issue the groups a stay-pending appeal. Translation: It's a go for the Army Corps.
This says nothing about the outcome of the appeal, but still. Coupled with the fact that the Army Corps awarded the deepening contract for "Reach C' an 11-mile segment of the 100-mile-long project to Norfolk Dredging Co. yesterday at 5 p.m., and that the Army Corps said it would only hold off from deepening until Feb. 26, this means deepening is kinda definitely gonna start on Friday. But only kinda definitely. As Ed Voigt, the Philadelphia Army Corps' chief of public and legislative affairs, put it in all its vague glory yesterday:
No actual, physical channel deepening work will begin before this Friday, Feb. 26, per our recent commitment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, we will not commence actual deepening work until the project sponsor completes the purchase of all Emission Reduction Credits (ERC's) needed for Clean Air Act conformity. (We anticipate that will also be wrapped up by the end of this week.) If we have the ERC's by then and the 3rd Circuit does not direct us otherwise, deepening could let me repeat, COULD begin as early as this Friday.
This means that, theoretically, the Army Corps could deepen "Reach C" only to later be told by the court that it couldn't finish the rest of the project. We'll keep you posted.
RELATED: Delaware River dredging postponed until Feb. 26, at the earliest
Holly, Thanks for keeping us up-dated! Dredging of Philadelphia's main shipping channel is a must for this city if it wants to continue to be a world class city. Your city can't be a global competitor if your port is only deep enough to handle domestic trade and not global trade. All the great cities in the world have great ports...they go hand in hand. All of the other major ports along the U.S. east coast have dredged their shipping channels to at least 45 feet why can't we?? Because some enviornmental group and special interest groups (mainly port competitors) won't allow it? We are currently facing one of the greatest reccessions of all time with unemployment floating around 10% with no sign of it getting better. This channel dredging will attract new business into the Philadelphia (delaware valley) region (NJ, DE and PA) and help our region grow and sustain good high paying jobs with benefits. And if the sand from the delaware river is so toxic how come we use it to replenish the beaches at our resort towns in Delaware?? Also do you think new york channel is any cleaner than ours?? They have more petroleum refining/holding industries than we do! haha i doubt it. But they continue to dig deeper...Don't let these competitors grab up all the good jobs! Bring them to philly where we need them! Thanks. Bob
[...] Court didnt issue Delaware River deepening opponents a stay-pending appeal, – Holly Otterbein, Philadelphia Citypaper, February 24, 2010 It looks as though the Army Corps of Engineers may may finally begin deepening the Delaware River this Friday, for realsies. As we told you before, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and four other environmental groups filed an appeal earlier this month with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the deepening project; in response, the Army Corps agreed to not begin deepening until Feb. 26. The environmental groups then filed a stay-pending appeal to keep the deepening project from moving forward whatsoever before the court could consider their original appeal in full. Click Here [...]
 |
| Photo | Nautical Passion |
The Clog just received word from Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, that the dredging of the Delaware River will now not begin until Feb. 26 at the earliest. It was to start this week, as decided by Judge Sue Robinson, who, at the end of January, denied the state of Delaware's injunction against the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent a part of the project from moving forward until state permits were obtained. "For those who oppose the project in the first instance, the time for that fight has long passed," Robinson wrote.
Well, maybe it hasn't.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the National Wildlife Federation, Clean Water Action, the Delaware Nature Society and the New Jersey Environmental Federation filed an appeal at the beginning of this week, asking that the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals halt the project, and it seems to be working, for now. The plan was to start work this week on "Reach C" of the dredging project, which would eventually deepen the Delaware River channel for a stretch of 100 miles, from Philadelphia to the Delaware Bay.
You can read more here, and stay tuned for updates on The Clog.
Wow. Riverkeeper is a better job title than Webmaster.
environmentalist go hug a tree! I need a job!
environmentalist go hug a tree! I need a job! Dredge now!
Hey Bob, Do you actually anticipate getting a job from the dredging? If so, shoot me an e-mail at holly.otterbein@citypaper.net. I'd love to talk to you about it.
[...] Delaware River dredging postponed until Feb. 26, at the earliest Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, delaware river, ed voigt, Maya van Rossum Court didn’t [...]
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
