Background & Benefits
Each year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Alabama State Port Authority remove approximately six million cubic yards of sediment from Alabama’s Mobile Harbor federal navigation channel and adjacent public berths.
Current practice places dredged materials in permitted open-water or upland management areas. These valuable sediments can be used to create wetlands and habitat. By constructing this project, sediments could remain in the Upper Mobile Bay system to increase important wetland and submerged aquatic vegetation habitat areas, improving water quality, building resilience against storm surge and reducing costs to maintain public channels and berths.
KEY BENEFITS
Increased nursery habitat where shrimp, crabs, mullet, trout, and other finfish species will breed and grow
Increases in future natural resources including sport fishing and other opportunities for people to recreate
Increases in submerged aquatic vegetation habitat
Wise environmental stewardship practices that put to good use the beneficial, nutrient-rich dredge material that would otherwise be lost from the Upper Mobile Bay system
A reduction in sedimentation and an increase in dissolved oxygen
Reduced damage resulting from storm surge
Reduced wave action and erosion within the area
Lessened state and federal taxpayer cost burden