On Tuesday President Barack Obama signed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, a bill that sounds excruciatingly boring but actually has major implications on Greater Boston. The measure approves federal funding for various aquatic infrastructure improvements, including deepening Boston Harbor.
By signing the legislation into law, President Obama is allowing for a partial sum of the $310 million cost to be allocated towards the Boston Harbor Dredging Project – an initiative expected to double the amount of shipping containers that move in and out of Boston Harbor, specifically the Paul W. Conley Container Terminal in South Boston. The legislation and its local impacts, in essence, will boost the regional economy at large.
“This bill gives a green light to 34 water infrastructure projects across the country, including projects to deepen Boston Harbor and the Port of Savannah, and to restore the Everglades,” remarked President Obama on Tuesday. “So this bill will help towns and cities improve their commerce, but it’s also going to help them prepare for the effects of climate change – storms, floods, droughts, rising sea levels – creating more adaptability, more resilience in these communities.”
In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers projects that for every dollar spent on construction, there will be nearly nine dollars returned in increased economic activity resulting in a $2.7 billion economic benefit for the entirety of New England.
The terminal sits on a sprawling 101-acre complex. It processed some 20,000 industrial shipping containers in 2013, and services two of the world’s top ten container lines, handling upwards of 1.5 million metric tons of cargo on a yearly basis. According to MassPort, the deep-water berth terminal currently reaches a depth of 45-feet.
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, along with U.S. Representatives Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch, lobbied on behalf of the entire Massachusetts delegation to have the dredging project included in the WRRDA back in November, which it eventually was in May.
For his part, Mayor Marty Walsh is equally optimistic in regards to the WRRDA and feels it falls directly in line with his administration’s goal of making Boston an international powerhouse with an intimate urban feel.
“This news will have an enormous impact on the City of Boston, and will contribute to our long-term growth,” said Mayor Walsh in a statement upon the project’s inclusion in the bill. “This is another step towards strengthening Boston’s role as a world-class city, with a world-class port at its hub. I’d like to thank Senators Markey and Warren and Congressmen Capuano and Lynch for their leadership on this issue.”
Per the act, $216 million of the $310 million project comes courtesy of the federal government, while MassPort will split the difference and put up the remaining $94 million.
Equally enthralled with the project and the legislation is Governor Deval Patrick who, after visiting the Panama Canal earlier this year – which is currently expanding in its own right– recognizes the economic benefit of improving infrastructure of this nature.
“By making the necessary investments in our nation’s ports and water infrastructure, this legislation creates new economic development opportunities in Massachusetts,” said Governor Patrick in a statement. “I am pleased that federal funding has been approved for the Boston Harbor Dredging project, which will help us create more jobs, increase trade opportunities and ensure the future economic competitiveness of the working port.”
While a bump in New England’s economy is sure to incite support from more than just elected officials, it’s unclear at this point what exactly the environmental impact will be on Boston Harbor’s marine life. Dredging any body of water causes aquatic disturbances, and while the Environmental Protection Agency deems dredging projects as “necessary because of the natural process of sedimentation,” management and disposal of dredged material is vigilantly protected by both the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers.
BostInno reached out to the Environmental League of Massachusetts, as well as MassPort, to get their take on the dredging project and to determine any environmental impact, but nobody was immediately available to comment.
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