Dredge the waterways and business will come.
That's a sentiment Port of Morgan City leaders have expressed again and again. A spokesman for one congressman assures port officials their voices are being heard, he said Monday.
The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Commission met Monday.
Priority No. 1 for port officials has been to push for more federal funding to dredge the Atchafalaya River and Atchafalaya River Bar Channel that extends beyond the mouth of the river.
Waterway commerce in the area has suffered during due to lack of water depth, especially for the past few years. An adequately dredged channel, Port of Morgan City officials say, would bring more business of many different types, including import-export ships.
John Chautin, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, attended Monday’s meeting. Higgins, R-Port Barre, represents Louisiana's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Morgan City.
"We definitely agree that more money should come back here," Chautin said.
Higgins is committed to making sure south Louisiana's ports get more federal funds to dredge waterways, Chautin said.
The region's ports receive much of the silt and sediment from upriver, so appropriate funds should be allocated to Louisiana's port to address that serious issue, Chautin said.
"If we get the proper monies to get all our channels and waterways dredged to the proper parameters, we can bring business back here and get everything booming again," he said.
Fertile sand in the river has potentially beneficial uses and could create land to help rebuild the Louisiana's coastline, according to port personnel. However, that sand is just being dumped directly back into the river where it will again have to be dredged out instead of going to areas where the material is desperately needed, such as Terrebonne Parish's dying marshes, port officials say.
Avoca Island is also a potential place where sand dredged from the Atchafalaya River, particularly Berwick Bay, could be used for beneficial use, Port Economic Development Manager Cindy Cutrera said.
Port Executive Director Raymond "Mac" Wade said 30 percent of the Mississippi River's flow comes to Morgan City through the Atchafalaya River, bringing with it lots of sediment. Yet the port doesn't receive commensurate funding to dredge its waterways.
In 2012, the port was receiving $18 million per year through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge its waterways. Now, port officials say the annual dredging funds are down to $6 million.
Port Commission President Duane Lodrigue said the Corps has been spending a significant amount of funds dredging Louisiana's ports, but Morgan City hasn't seen much of that money.
During the meeting, Tim Connell, Atchafalaya region manager for the Corps of Engineers, said officials have just less than two weeks left on a project using a cutter-head dredge to remove a buildup of sand from a section of the Atchafalaya River.
The Corps has received $2 million from the federal government through the continuing resolution that Congress passed late on Dec. 21, which will allow officials to dredge other problem spots in the river in the coming weeks, officials said.
Before that additional allocation dredging funds, the port commission held a special meeting earlier that day to approve issuance of a letter of intent for the port to contribute $1.25 million of the port's own funds, if necessary to keep the waterways adequately dredged.
Corps officials are in the process of working toward signing a contract with Brice Civil Constructors to get an agitation dredge to begin dredging the fluid mud that accumulates in the Atchafalaya River Bar Channel, which empties in the Gulf of Mexico. Port leaders refer to the mud as "fluff."
Brice was the only company to express interest in signing a contract with the Corps to dredge the fluff and reduce the density of the material to allow for more vessel traffic, according to port officials. Brice plans to use an offshore supply vessel with a drag arm behind it put the fluff in suspension.
The corps hopes to award the Bar Channel dredging contract to Brice in late March or early April, Connell said. Officials eventually hope to be able to keep a dredge in the Bar Channel year round.
But if for some reason Brice's proposed contract with the Corps fall through, port leaders say they have plans to take dredging matters into their own hands and potentially use a $1.6 million barge port officials approved buying in June 2017.
They're in the midst of trying to acquire a pump that the port could use on the barge to dredge the Bar Channel if Brice doesn't end up getting the contract.
Port officials say they are confident that they could piece together funding to dredge the waterways for the next year, but the future of being able to properly dredge the Atchafalaya River and Bar Channel beyond that is uncertain due to lack of funding.
In other business, the commission
—Approved extension of a sublease with Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations.
—Approved extension of a contract with Bean Consulting relating to dredging work.