BRUNSWICK — Col. Tom Tickner, who’s in charge at the Army Corps of Engineers Savannah district, delivered disappointing news Wednesday to anyone who uses the Port of Brunswick.
Because Brunswick is considered a medium-use port based on tonnage, it is projected to get only 50 percent of the funding necessary to complete channel and harbor projects, Tickner told the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re going to do all we can possibly do,” Tickner said. “We’re not going to get you to the full 38 feet, I can about guarantee you that.”
And Congress will likely not allocate any funds to dredge the obstructed Intracoastal Waterway because it is used mostly for recreation except for some barge traffic, he said.
Harbor pilots Edwin and Bruce Fendig said Brunswick gets an unfair return on the money it sends to Washington.
In 2011 alone, shippers paid $12 million to $13 million in harbor maintenance fees and, by year’s end, could possibly pay $300 million in U.S. Customs duties, Bruce Fendig said.
“And the federal government will pay only half of what we need to dredge the channel,” he told Tickner.
After the meeting, the Fendigs said Brunswick is a “donor port” because money collected there goes to maintain channels and harbors at bigger, higher-use ports.
The corps asked for $6 million and they get about $2.9 million. About a third of that goes toward the actual dredging with the rest going to administrative costs including wildlife protection, Edwin Fendig said.
With 80,000 to 100,000 cubic yards of material settling into the bar channel each month, maintenance dredging keeps falling farther behind, he said.
“If you just take a spoonful out every year, you’re never going to catch up,” he said.
The federal government’s funding formula could endanger the funding stream — including duties — if ports are allowed to continually degrade, he said.
“Why wouldn’t you spend $10 million to get your $300 million?” he asked.
Christopher F. Wynns, operations manager of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, said the Brunswick port would collect even more if shippers did not have to divert tonnage to other ports.
Wynns said Wallenius Wilhelmsen ships often have to stop first in Savannah to unload some freight. Lightened, the ships don’t run as deeply, which allows them to get through the obstructed shipping channel, he said.
Even then, Edwin Fendig said, most ships have to wait for high tide to get into the channel at the outer bar.
Rick Whitmore, of Mercedes Benz, said the company is importing 60,000 vehicles a year through Brunswick and exporting 40,000 to 50,000 to Europe. Whitmore says the formula should be changed to consider more than tonnage in deciding a port’s importance.
“I think value’s got to be part of the equation,” he said. “A ton of Mercedes is one car.”
State Rep. Alex Atwood, R-Brunswick, told Tickner the port is critical to the area’s future.
“If we do not dredge this harbor, we’re going to lose jobs,” he said.
