Federal omnibus appropriations to provide funding for Ontonagon projects
December 30, 07 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By Dan Schneider | Source: Mining Gazette
HOUGHTON — A number of local projects have been funded through the federal omnibus appropriations.
On Wednesday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 2764, the bill that will fund federal government operations through Fiscal Year 2008. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill Dec. 19, a day after the U.S. Senate gave its approval.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received funding for two waterways in the Village of Ontonagon. These are the dredging of Ontonagon Harbor ($595,000 allocated) and the extension of the Ontonagon Channel (no amount specified).
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 40,000 cubic yards of material must be dredged from the harbor each year. One consequence of not dredging, according to the Corps, is light loading of incoming freight vessels — a loss of one to two feet of channel depth resulting in increased annual transportation costs of between $370,000 and $770,000. The harbor receives coal freighters that supply Smurfit-Stone Container’s mill in Ontonagon and White Pine Electric Power LLC’s coal generating facility in White Pine.
H.R. 2764 also includes $121,000 to fund Corps dredging in the Portage Lake Shipping Canal.
