FY25 President’s Budget designates $124M for USACE projects in Chesapeake Bay region

The President’s budget for fiscal year 2025, released March 11, includes about $124 million designated towards the USACE Baltimore District to dredge the Baltimore Harbor, continue aquatic ecosystem restoration that benefits the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, and operate and maintain flood risk management projects throughout the mid-Atlantic region, said the District.

“Funding from the President’s budget affords Baltimore District the opportunity to continue to deliver on our mission to provide vital engineering solutions that energize our local and regional economies and provides for necessary operation and maintenance of major flood risk management projects that reduce risk to communities and infrastructure,” said Baltimore District Commander, Col. Estee Pinchasin.

“A prime example of that is our partnership with the Maryland Port Administration to maintain the depths of vital shipping channels that ensure the Port of Baltimore can accommodate some of the world’s largest container ships and continue to serve the region.”

USACE Baltimore funding highlights are as follows:

• $49.227 million to dredge the Baltimore Harbor and approach channels to a uniform 50-foot depth to support improved navigational efficiencies at the Port of Baltimore and help meet demand for future capacity at Port facilities. Additionally, $1.017 million is allocated to patrol and collect debris within the Patapsco River and its tributaries in an area covering 24 square miles, providing benefits to navigation by reducing damages, financial losses and safety hazards to both commercial and recreational vessels,
• $10 million towards construction management, environmental monitoring and continued development of critical wetlands and uplands for the Paul S. Sarbanes Ecosystem Restoration Project at Poplar Island in Talbot County, where dredged material from the approach channels to the Port of Baltimore is beneficially reused, providing critical habitat to Chesapeake Bay wildlife,
• $5.025 million towards continued maintenance dredging of the Wicomico River, as well as initiation and completion of a Dredged Material Management Plan to guide the management of dredged material placement and ensure these activities are performed in an environmentally acceptable manner, using sound engineering techniques, are economically warranted, and that sufficient placement areas are available for at least the next 20 years,
• $1.415 million for operation and maintenance of the Ocean City Harbor and Inlet and Sinepuxent Bay, including maintenance dredging of sand in and around the inlet navigation channel as well as Assateague Island bypass operations, in which the dredged sand is beneficially placed immediately south of the inlet along Assateague Island to mitigate the impacts of sediment transport and erosion caused by the Ocean City Inlet and its jetties, etc.