Page 30 - Port of Baltimore March April 2013

[28] The Port of Baltimore ■ March/April 2013 To subscribe or renew, visit www.marylandports.com
industry. It could accommodate 1 million cubic yards per year, and
when finished could be another marine terminal since it has deep-
water access. But the site would need substantial remediation
because of past pollution before the project could begin.
MPA Executive Director James J. White spoke about dredging
concerns at the March meeting of the Baltimore Port Alliance
(BPA) and noted that, in the past six years, he’s dealt with three
different owners. Currently, the land is owned by liquidator Hilco
Industrial. Unable to find a buyer after purchasing the property
from the bankrupt RG Steel for a fire-sale price of $72 million, Hilco
began auctioning off parts of the mill and equipment. Anything
remaining will likely be razed.
The MPA had been informed earlier t his year that Environmental
Liability Transfer Inc. (ELT), a joint venture partner of Hilco, would
be responsible for the remediation and is considering cleaning
up the site itself. Even though it didn’t own the land, the MPA did
pump benzene from a pool on the property to protect groundwater.
A possible backup site has also surfaced — land near Cox
Creek that is owned by Crystal Global — but it’s much smaller than
Coke Point.
MID-BAY ISLAND RESTORATION
Working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer, the MPA has de-
signed a project that, similar to Poplar Island, would restore another
rapidly vanishing island while providing a place to put material
dredged from the Chesapeake Bay’s middle channels. The so-called
Mid-Bay Island Restoration Project would involve James and Barren
islands, near the mouth of the Little Choptank River. Barren Island
has lost two-thirds of its land to erosion, and James Island has
broken into separate smaller islands.
The MPA looks forward to the U.S. Congress passing a Water
Resources Development Act (WRDA), a set of laws that governs
and authorizes water-related projects. A WRDA is supposed to
be passed every two years, but the last one was in 2007. One is
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
Philadelphia office maintains the C&D
Canal and the approach to the southern
end of it, from Poole’s Island to the land
cut. The canal is a popular route for
ships leaving the Port of Baltimore.
“If somebody goes through the C&D
Canal, they’ve just been to Baltimore
and are going to the Northeastern
U.S. or Europe or Canada,” said Frank
Hamons, Maryland Port Administration
(MPA) Deputy Director for Harbor
Development. The canal sees a large
amount of roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) cargo,
as well as tug and barge traffic.
PAYING
ATTENTION TO
C&D
CANAL
We pay a lot of attention to being a good neighbor
and taking care of the bay. We have a good
program going and we’ve established that, if you
work with people and build trust and they are part
of the decisions, that’s the best way to go forward.
~ Frank Hamons, MPA Deputy Director for Harbor Development.
To keep the silty bottom of the channel
open, about 1.2 million cubic yards
must be dredged annually.
Recently, the channel shoaled in, reduc-
ing the channel depth from 35 feet to
31 feet. The MPA and the Army Corps
of Engineers were eventually able to
reopen the channel to its full depth,
transporting dredged material all the
way to Poplar Island, more than 30
miles south of Baltimore. But 50 ships
were impacted. “There’s always the
question of what will happen to that
cargo,” Hamons said. “Will they go back
down the bay and around? Will they opt
to bring a lighter cargo? Or will they
just go somewhere else altogether —
that’s always the risk.”
‘ ’