March 5, 2014 Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden made the announcement that new funding, made available by the US Army Corps of Engineers, will go to fund dredging operations at ports up and down the Oregon Coast.

The total funding will give ports $19 million. $4.5 million will go to six smaller ports and $12.5 million in additional funds for the purpose of reconstruction of the jetty and dredging along the Columbia River.

The six smaller ports receiving funds are Bandon, Depoe Bay, Port Orford, Gold Beach, Garibaldi and Umpqua. Without the funding, which now has been made available, the six ports would not have received any federal funding.

The ports in Chetco and Siuslaw will get additional funding to support their dredging operations. Chetco would have originally received $21,000 and now get an additional $696,000. Siuslaw would have originally received $32,000 in federal funding, and now will have an additional $698,000.

According to Merkley’s office “dredging has long been underfunded at Oregon’s small ports.”

Dredging — the excavation of sediments and the disposal of them elsewhere — is done for the purpose of maintaining the navigability of waterways.

“Our smaller ports will gain much-needed essential maintenance and improvements, and the start of repairs to jetties at the mouth of the Columbia River is extraordinarily important to our entire state economy,” Merkley said in the annoucement.

The following monetary amounts provided for the six smaller ports are as follows:

Bandon: $413,000

Depoe Bay: $380,000

Port Orford: $1,262,000

Gold Beach: $638,000

Garibaldi: $659,000

Umpqua: $861,000

“Oregon’s small ports are the economic engines of the coast,” Wyden said in the annoucement.