Could the St. Joseph Harbor be deepened to reduce its regular need for dredging? Congressman Bill Huizenga wants to find out.
Huizenga tells us former President Joe Biden signed the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024 before leaving office. The legislation serves as the authorization for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve federally regulated water infrastructure across the nation, and included in this latest version are provisions affecting the harbors both in St. Joseph and Holland. Huizenga says the Corps is being asked to study whether those harbors could be more thoroughly dredged.
“That dredging happens not necessarily annually, but darn close to it, kind of depending on water levels and all those things,” Huizenga said. “Really, the idea is to see, okay, would investing a little more time and effort and money into deepening a harbor on the front end, would that help us to not have to come back and do maintenance dredging or doing another full dredge job for a longer period back and do maintenance dredging or doing another full dredge job for a longer period
The current project depth for the St. Joseph outer harbor is 21 feet and the inner harbor and turning basin is 18 feet. Huizenga says a study into the potential navigational and economic benefits of deepening the outer and inner harbor could help provide for greater vessel capacity and avoid recurring emergency dredging due to shoaling in the harbor.
Huizenga said there’s no timetable for the Army Corps to do the study.
