Can The State Move Forward With The Savannah Port Expansion Without Feds’ OK?

At issue is whether the state can move forward with dredging without authorization and construction funding from the federal government.

Deal said earlier this week the state would use the more than $266 million it has set aside to begin work on the estimated $650 million Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.  A spokesperson for Attorney General Sam Olens, Deal’s chief legal counsel, said all questions regarding the port were being deferred to the governor’s office.

Bart Gobiel, the state’s chief operating officer, said the state can begin moving forward with parts of the project because language in a federal spending bill signed by the president in January labeled it an “ongoing construction project.”

“We’re going to do anything that we can do to move the project forward under that law,” Gobiel said.

Georgia officials say the state funds will be used for preliminary phases of the project, like preparing lands for acquisition, purchasing an oxygen injection system and securing wetlands under environmental requirements.

When it comes to the actual dredging, however, the state has remained mum.

“There’s the question of whether or not Georgia has the power to do so,” said Democratic Congressman John Barrow, who represents part of the Savannah area. “There may be some permits that need to be obtained, much in the same way a construction permit needs to be obtained before you can build something other than what the property’s been zoned for.”

Republican Congressman Jack Kingston of Savannah, who’s running for the state’s open Senate seat, agrees.

“The state cannot move forward because of a legal hurdle, not a financial hurdle,” Kingston said.

Both lawmakers joined the state’s 14 other congressional delegates in penning a letter to the Office of Management and Budget Thursday, asking the president to finalize an agreement to move the dredging forward.

The Obama Administration has said the authorization for more than $400 million in federal funding will come as part of the Water Resources Development Act, which would designate the Army Corp of Engineers to supervise the dredging.

“We will be the executive agent that will handle the deepening project. We’ll be using federal and state funds,” said Billy Birdwell, a spokesperson for the Corp’s Savannah district.

Birdwell said the Crop is responsible for contracting out the actual dredging and acquiring land needed for the project.

But the bill authorizing it to do so – the Water Resources Development Act – is stuck in a Congressional Conference Committee after different versions passed in the House and Senate.

In a statement, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said the project can’t move forward without that bill’s authorization.

“The scope of the project has changed since its initial authorization, part of which is an amount of over $300 million for mitigation related to the project.  Therefore, the project will need additional authorization for construction.  We are all very hopeful that authorization will be in the future Water Resources Development Act,” Darcy said.

Lawmakers have said the Water Resources Development Act could pass in the next few months.

In the meantime, the state is looking at alternatives for funding the project, including the possibility of footing the entire bill. What those might be is not clear at this point.