Dredging the St. Johns River is economically worth the risk.
But along with that, there should be at least an extra $50 million spent to offset potential environmental impacts that would come with deepening the channel from 40 to 47 feet.
Both conclusions were reached by the Jacksonville Port Task Force on Thursday, after months of studying the much-discussed project.
Now, maybe the hardest part of the 15-member group’s work is coming.
The next question to wrestle: How will the city pay for its share of the estimated $695 million project? It’s an answer Mayor Alvin Brown tasked the group to determine, although any decision won’t be made until after voters decide whether he’s been re-elected next month.
The local share, consisting of city and state funding, should be somewhere between $300 million-$350 million.
To make it this far, the task force had to settle on whether the project made financial sense. When the project was approved by the federal government in June, the cost-to-benefit ratio was 2.7. To receive federal funding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a minimum threshold of 2.5.
Brian Taylor, Jacksonville Port Authority CEO, told the task force that efforts are being made to lower the cost of the project and improve that ratio, which would improve the speed of federal funding
One idea he mentioned was breaking the 13-mile project into smaller pieces, which would allow more companies to bid on the work and increase competition. Other ideas, he said, were too early to talk about.
The task force later voted to approve moving forward based on the economics, but it wasn’t unanimous.
Quinton White, executive director of the Marine Science Research Institute at Jacksonville University, has for some time had an issue with the corps’ analysis. Before being the lone vote against, he said he was concerned about an underestimation of costs and overestimation of benefits.
With economics out of the way, talks turned to the environment. On that, they all agreed more mitigation efforts were needed to offset potential damage deepening could have on the river and wetlands.
The recommended $50 million includes a $25 million request from the state for the breaching of Rodman Dam and $25 million from the city for a variety of undetermined efforts. Restoring oyster beds, creating artificial reefs and spending more on septic tank removal all were among those possibilities discussed.
Breaching Putnam County’s Rodman Dam has been supported by the JAX Chamber, St. Johns Riverkeeper and others as a way to restore the Ocklawaha River. That might take a bit longer to come to fruition, though.
The Legislature isn’t taking it up this year, with the next possibility being the Jan. 1 start of next year’s session (unless lawmakers return to Tallahassee for a special session).
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