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Ditching
the Ditch
It’s
ironic that the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) will celebrate its
65th birthday next year. Judging by the looming federal budget, the 1,088-mile
inland river may be forced into permanent retirement.
For fiscal year 2005,
the current number of dollars allotted to maintain the southern portion
of the Ditch is exactly zero. Dredging the waterway is the job of the
Army Corps of Engineers, and if it doesn’t get enough money to keep
up with shoaling, the AIWW will not be navigable, let alone safe, for
much longer. (At presstime, the budget was still awaiting approval from
Congress.)
“This budget situation
is a real mess. The AIWW is literally crumbling before our eyes,”
said Rosemary Lynch, executive director of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway
Association, a recreational boating advocacy group based in Alexandria,
Virginia. Lynch is leading a grass-roots effort (www.atlintracoastal.org)
to restore funding to maintain it.
Completed in 1940, winding
from the Chesapeake Bay to Miami, the AIWW is the jugular vein of boating
on the East Coast. Roughly 13,000 recreational boaters and many more commercial
operators transit this part of the Ditch every year. Its mandated depth
is 12 feet, yet in most places it’s only eight feet deep, and silting
in some areas has made it as shallow as three feet. Still other portions,
such as the Lockwood Folly Inlet in North Carolina, have been closed due
to shoaling.
Shallow water can spell
serious damage to powerboats, and the navigational charts that boaters
carry, which are sometimes out of date, offer little protection against
the waterway’s rapidly changing contours and depths. Moreover, every
segment of the AIWW that shuts down results in more boaters making oceanic
passages, which may increase the strain on Coast Guard search and rescue
operations.
In February 2002, the
Corps launched a full economic analysis of the AIWW to determine its real
monetary value to recreational and commercial boaters. Though the study
is still ongoing, the Corps reported it had found immediate causes of
concern. “AIWW users are experiencing increasing damage to equipment
as they attempt to navigate the waterway,” the Corps said in its
preliminary report.
The news of the zero-dollar
allotment couldn’t come at a worse time for the Corps and for those
boaters who cruise the AIWW. The Corps says it already has $835 million
worth of dredging work that it can’t afford to do.
Who dealt the apparently
fatal blow to the Ditch? The Office of Management and Budget. Why? The
OMB has decided that “low-use” waterways will no longer be maintained
with federal dollars. These are defined as waterways that carry less than
one billion ton-miles of freight—a description that applies to the
Ditch.
13
Feet of clearance
the Queen Mary 2 would have if she passed under New York’s
Verrazano Narrows Bridge at high tide.
Things
We Like
Far be it from
us to praise anything related to sailing, yet we can’t help but admire
the architectural magnificence of the Burj
Al Arab hotel in Dubai. About ten miles south of the country’s
capital, this amazing structure cuts the shape of a billowing sail against
the awe-inspiring Arabian Gulf.
Completed in 2000, the
1,053-foot Burj Al Arab is the world’s tallest hotel building, soaring
higher than the Eiffel Tower, and is packed with amenities fit for royalty.
Next time you’re cruising in Dubai, check it out. There’s no
telling when they’ll build one designed to look like a powerboat.
June
Calendar
5-6. The Lake Erie Boating and Fishing Fest in Cleveland, Ohio.
(440) 899-5009. www.boatohio.com.
10-13. The 18th-Annual Spring Boat Show in Pomona, California.
(714) 633-7581. www.scma.com.
11-13.
The Boat Show in San Jose, California. (800)698-5777. www.ncma.com.
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