PORT MANSFIELD ” When federal officials divvy up funds to maintain Texas™ shipping channels and its intracoastal waterway, the small fishing village of Port Mansfield is inevitably last in line.

Unlike most of the state™s ports, Port Mansfield doesn™t have any commercial shipping traffic.

Its livelihood instead depends on sport fishermen and their thirst for catching fish in the nearby Laguna Madre or Gulf of Mexico.

But, as the offshore waters fill with sand and become shallower, it becomes more perilous for fishermen™s boats.

œIf the jetties close up, boats will be trapped in the harbor or the bay, said Terry Neal, who has been a fishing guide in Port Mansfield for 30 years. That means lost business, Neal said.

œProbably 50 percent of (the port™s) residents are solely dependent on the fishing industry, he said.

Port Mansfield is just one of the Rio Grande Valley ports affected by a funding shortfall for dredging and maintenance. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has faced budget cuts and cost increases in the last several years, officials say, forcing some dredging projects to be postponed for years.

The corps also has put off dredging in the Texas stretch of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway because of budget limitations, according to a 2007 report by the Army Corps of Engineers™ Galveston District.


Congress recently approved the Army Corps of Engineers™ 2007 budget, which included $33.7 million to dredge and maintain the intracoastal waterway in Texas. However, the agency needs an additional $42 million to dredge the waterway to a depth of 12 feet throughout, officials say.

With limited funds, the corps must prioritize ports with commercial traffic, said Karl Brown, operations manager for the Galveston District.

The intracoastal waterway, and ports from Corpus Christi to Brownsville, have far less cargo passing through than the ship channels north of Corpus Christi, Brown said. An average of about 46 million tons of cargo travels through Port Arthur to Houston, compared with 2.3 million tons through Corpus to Brownsville, he said.

As a result, the Valley™s projects are more frequently postponed.

Of the nearly $34 million allotted for intracoastal waterway maintenance in 2007, none was allotted for dredging in the Valley™s portion of the waterway. Almost $5 million went toward dredging in the upper reaches of the Laguna Madre, stopping at Baffin Bay, but no funds are earmarked for dredging in the lower bay, according to corps officials.

The ports, which are separately budgeted, aren™t faring much better. The Port of Brownsville received $5 million for routine dredging in the 2007 budget, but no other Valley ports received funds this year. Some ports have been waiting for years. Many don™t need yearly dredging, but port directors are starting to get nervous about the delays.

Port Isabel is œin pretty good shape, but actually has become four feet shallower since the last dredge, said Bob Cornelison, director of the Port Isabel-San Benito Navigation District. The ships that pass through the port have enough clearance now, but might not later if dredging is postponed again, he said.

A complicating factor is that dredging projects have become more expensive in the last few years, according to officials. Dredging companies face an increasing number of personal injury lawsuits from employees, and many are tried in the lawsuit-friendly Valley, they said.

As a result, dredging companies have increased their prices to cover insurance costs, according to port directors.

The Corps of Engineers completed a dredging project in the Port of Brownsville this month, and the original bids for that project were twice what they expected, said Donna Eymard, the port™s interim director. It was out of the corps™ budget, so the corps opted for cheaper dredging equipment, she said. Other projects, like dredging at Port Mansfield™s jetties, were scrapped altogether because of the increased costs.
The jetties only have two feet of water passing through, compared to the needed 12 to 13 feet, Vasquez said.

œIt™s really bad ” people are worried, he said.

As the waterway and ports become shallower, commercial boats and fishermen alike might bypass the Valley altogether, port directors said.

œIt™s affected us, Eymard said. œWe™ve had to give some discounts, because we™ve asked (shippers) to load ships lighter ... our cargo statistics are down.

Just because the projects are postponed doesn™t mean the need goes away, said Neal, the Port Mansfield fishing guide.

œThe longer they wait, the more it™s going to cost, he predicted. œBut we™re so small, we have no power to do anything.

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Melissa McEver covers health and environment issues for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Harlingen and you can reach her at (956) 430-6252. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com .