Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-05-07
DELAWARE RIVER PROJECT
An Objectionable Scheme Checked by
Senator Gray.
AMENDMENT OFFERED BY HIM
Effort to Protect Streams in
This State.

The project of Mai. Raymond TO
erect dixie from Reedy island 10
Liaton's Point has for tho present been
checked, In the bill to appropriate
$500, 900 for the improvements to the
Delaware Senator Gray has had incor-
potated tho following amendment:
Provided, that no part of said APP
propriation or OF any appropriations
heretofore made shall be expended upon
the building of dixie between Reedy
Island and Liston's Point until hoard
of three engineer officers, to be ap-
pointed by the Secretary of War, shall
consider the project Of said dixie with
reference to preserving and improving
the navigation of the Appoquinimink
river and Blackbird crock, and the
riparian rights and facilities OF the
Delaware shore. y
Senator Gray, who is in town for
few days, was seen at his residence
Friday morning in regard to Mai. Ray
mond's project and its effects.
The matter is one in which Della
wareans should take u deep interest,
for should Mai. Raymond's pet project
be carried out, miles upon miles of the
Delaware shore may be turned into
mud flats and two of its navigable
streams practically cut off from the
Delaware river The carrying out of
such scheme may wcll bo blocked in
the interest of this State and it is a
matter Of good fortune that its power
for evil has temporarily at least been
ended.
For several years it has been one Of
Maj. Raymond's plans to deepen the
Delaware channel in the vicinity of
Roody Island, which is about opposite
the town of Port Penn. On the Jersey
side of the bay lie the Dan Baker
shoals and in order to deepen the chan
mol Mai. Raymond proposes to contract
the stream by the erection of ono dixie
from the northern point of Reody Island
west to the Delaware shore, aud Of
another dixie from the lower end of tho
island to Liston's Point, distance
Of six miles. The bow thus formed
together with Reedy Island cuts Off 10
or - miles Of tho Delaware shore.
between the two dilxes are the mouths
of Appoquinimink river and BlaclSbird
crook, both important streams, which
will thus be cut of from the Delaware
river. Port Penn itself, which has
beer ? shipping port for 200 years,
could no longer bo stopping place
for vessels.
II was in the face of such dire possi
bilities as these that the attention of
Senator Gray was brought to the bill.
He went into the Senate committee
while the appropriation bill, which
came from the House, was being con-
sidered, and hau the amendment, as
mentioned above, added to the bill.
Ex-senator Anthony Higgins was also
interested in behalf of the people of
Odessa, whose rights would be affected
by the building of the dixie, and Mr..
Higgins has appeared us an attorney in
these interests before board of on
ginoers in Phiapelphia, as we'll as in
Washington.
In regard to the effect of tho dixie
upon the Delaware shore, Senator Gray
says that the engineers themselves con
teHsed to the Senate comlnIttoe that in
forming tho project thoy had taken into
consideration only the deepening of the
Dan Baker shoals and had not con-
sidered the effect upon tho navigation
OF those rivors or the rights of the
Delaware people.
Senator Gray declares that we do not
hold the natural advantages of the
Delaware bay, at the whim of United
Statos engineer
I'VE deny, he said, 'the right of
the United States TO take any part of
the rights God has given us, in order
to deepen the channel for vessels to
Philadelphia. The Senator said that
there was no objection TO deepening the
channel, but it should DO done in
another way. Spoaking Of Maj. Ray
mond's statement that if the work is
stopped the government will be liable
to damages for breach Of contract,
Senator Gray took the view that it
would DO better to pay such damages
than to deprive community, however
poor, OF its rights. When HIS project
was opposed Mai Raymond suggested
the cutting of an opening in the dixie
to allow tho tidal ebb to flow to the
two streams, But Senator Gray holds
that such an onuning would be entirely
inadequate.
Maj. Raymond, in an interview, says
that i'll the event of the passage of tho
restrictive proyiso, the work will have
to be transferred to some other point,
say Duck creek flats. In regard to
this Senator Gray says here is another
Whilo the reporter was at Senator
Gray's, Mr.. Higgins called. lie had
this to say in regard to tho matter
"This thing proposes to wall in third
of the county, to destroy Port Penn
and Odessa as ports of Shipment. and
Augustine Pier, the one water side
resort lor wide section of the country
to obstruct the drainage of the whole
country side of st. Georges and Appo-
quinimink hundreds, including the
farms and co mmunities alongside OF
| Augustine creek, Silver run, Drawyer's,
| Appoquinimink and Bluckbird creeks,
and the entire watershed up to the
Chesapeake divide it. This is simply
the destruction Of the health OF these
ontire communities; bilious, chills,
fovera, viii make these properties no
longer desirable as places of residence,
| while the marshes and meadows that
have been reclaimed will be condemned
to worthlessness.
40 issue involving interests at all
comparable with these in extent and
magnitude have ever been raised
within my knowledge in this State.
The matter Incomes all the more serious
when We learn for. the first time from
| Mai. Raymund's interview in the
Record that the same injury is threat
onnd to the communities in the neigh
horhood Of Duck creek. thus involving
the interesting and flourishing town
OF SMYRNA, and lilackbird and Duck
Creek hundreds. -
a Fratermul VISIT. .-
Members of ShaGkamaXon lodge oi
Philadelphia, wore the guests OF Jeller.
son Lodge, /. o. o. r., Of this city