BRISTOL, Florida — The six Florida counties along the Apalachicola River say they support shipping on the waterway, but most oppose returning to “full scale” river dredging.
The counties have adopted resolutions since September, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a dredging analysis after receiving $3 million from Congress in 2024 for the work.
“Navigational dredging can either help us return the Apalachicola system to a more natural state — or turn it into an industrial ditch,” Jim McClellan of the Apalachicola River Counties Alliance, representing the six Florida counties, said Wednesday.
“Our counties are willing to help the Corps develop a plan that brings real benefit to the river, floodplain, and bay, as well as to the people who live along its banks,” he said in a statement.
Some Alabama and Georgia business groups upstream on the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers support dredging to deepen the river and encourage commercial shipping. But some of the Florida counties and environmentalists say dredging has harmed the Apalachicola River ecology for limited commercial barge traffic.
Dustin Gautney of the Army Corps’ district office in Mobile, Alabama, said Wednesday no decisions had been made on whether to resume dredging. The district office is overseeing the analysis of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system.
“We are aware of resolutions and feedback from local governments and stakeholders across the basin,” Gautney said. “Those perspectives are an important part of the ongoing NEPA process and will be considered alongside technical analyses, environmental compliance requirements, and coordination with state and federal resource agencies.”
Philip W. Clayton, executive director of the TriRivers Waterway Development Association, told POLITICO in September he supports only limited dredging that includes the restoration of past damage to the Apalachicola River and a beneficial use of the dredged materials.
Clayton said he doesn’t know anyone who supports what he calls “wholesale” dredging to maintain the full river channel. Five of the Florida counties adopted identical resolutions opposing full-scale dredging. They said navigation can be achieved “without repeating the environmental and community harms of the past” while providing economic benefits.
However, coastal Franklin County in January said it supports dredging and navigation if it brings more water to Apalachicola Bay to increase river flows and help restore seafood jobs after the oyster population collapsed more than a decade ago.
All six counties urged the Corps of Engineers to work with the Apalachicola River Counties Alliance to develop a “balanced and forward-looking” plan that supports navigation while “preserving the ecological integrity” of the river and bay system.
The Apalachicola Riverkeeper environmental group has opposed dredging because of the federal agency’s “destructive” past efforts “to commercialize a low-traffic river” and failure to restore past damage.
“There’s messaging going on that dredging will ultimately deliver more water to the bay than we currently get over a range of conditions,” group board member Craig Diamond said during a March 31 meeting on dredging in Bristol. “The folks who have some hydrological [experience] are having a hard time seeing it.”