Dredging to start on south end of channel

The Port of Skagit has been notified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is funding $820,750 to dredge the south end of Swinomish Channel.

The Corps has contracted with American Construction Co., Inc, which was the same contractor for the dredging done last year.

This year’s project is expected to start in late September and wind up around Christmas. The work will be confined to the south end of the channel, where silt accumulates the quickest. When the navigable channel fills in with silt, larger vessels cannot use the waterway.

The federal government had quit funding the dredging for several years, after deciding that the channel traffic didn’t meet the criteria to warrant the expense.

For years, Port of Skagit, Town of La Conner, county and tribal officials lobbied federal legislators and government agencies relentlessly to convince them dredging was important.

In 2010, an economic study for the port found that the channel is crucial to marine businesses. At that time it was generating more than $92 million to the regional economy, and was directly vital to hundreds of maritime jobs.

To keep the waterway open, dredging must be performed about every three or four years. Fear that the channel would fill in and choke the regional economy prompted a consortium of local government agencies and businesses to start setting aside money to fund the dredging themselves.

But so far the money hasn’t been needed because the Corps of Engineers stepped up to do some maintenance on the channel.

Even so, none of the local agencies are taking it for granted that the channel will stay on the government’s dredging schedule, and they’re being very vigilant.

Port of Skagit spokesman Carl Molesworth said the port is keeping its money in the dredging fund.

Even though the dredging will be underway, “we have another meeting of the consortium in October to talk about what the next steps are,” Molesworth said. “Until the problem is solved, those meetings will continue.”