The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-28

use, the river was approximately
% feet. Today, ships-tankers-
drawing nearly 80 feet are common
on the seas and ship lanes. vii
mington is a very large petroleum
storage and distribution point, re-
ported1y. the second largest on
the Atlantic Seaboard, and it is
growing all the time, with three
new companies now preparing to
move in. 1t is natural that they
should want to use their largest
tankers Hence, there is a demand
for a depth even greater than
the 80 feet now authorized; and
We now hold a resolution from the
Congress authorizing us to conduct
surveys, hold a hearing, and in
vestigate the conditions to deter
mine, whether q depth of IS feet
is needed. We will hold the hear
ing on July 30. Should the need
for IS feet be demonstrated, and
the cost does not exceed the bene-
fits to be derived. I think it is
fairly certain that the iprovement
will be recommended. But it
costs a lot of money to do anything
these days, and deepening rivers
is no exception. Our estimate in
1899 for dredging to 80 feet was
approximately one and one-half
million dollars, or a million dollars
less than the present estimate.
From 1929 to date, approximately
Sl2, 00O, 600 has been spent bv the
Federal Government in improving
the Cape Fear River. 1t will take
approximately two and one-half
million dollars to give you 80 feet
to the highway bridge, and Is feet
to the fertilizer factories up the
Cape Fear and Northeast Rivers.
We can reasonably expect that it
will take another two and one-ha.f
million to give you IS feet to
Wilmington. We cannot recommend
this project unless we are able
to see a saving that will offset this
cost. We are an old and tried or
ganization, always examining care
fully into all phases of our prob
lens, both engineering and others.
I am sure you wouldn't have us
do it any other way.
Must Show Need
I am frequently asked-'What
can we do to- assist in getting a
favorable recommendation for a
35 feet channel?' Well, that is a
hard one for me to answer as l
will be the first of five to sit
in judgment or the proposal. But
to put it briefly, we will have to
be shown that there is a definite
need for IS feet of water for the
p r S e n t and immediate future.
Oil companies and shipping COM
panies should exhibit their pres
ent needs an state what draft
ships they desire to operate in this
port. Any new steamship lines
looking to this port should be
represented. New industries inter-
ested in locating here, if they con
template either directly OF indi-
rectly using the port, should be
heard from. And of very great
importance, what use does upstate
interests-industrial North Caro-
~lina-expect to make of this river,
for after all, the river belongs
to North Carolina, Wilmington just
happens to be the favored city on
its banks near the mouth.
Bread And Butter
And now, before l close, I want
to tell you of a few other things
the U. S. Engineers are doing:
First, our bread and butter is the
Improvement and development of
waterways for both ocean-going
and inland craft. Few people rea-
lie it, but the work we do on
waterways and inlets has more to
do with the propagation and pre-
servation of fish and shell fish
thar all the other activities COM
bined. Inlets permit fish from the
ocean to seek shallow and f-e5her
waters for protection and spawn
ing. Oysters and clans must have
the proper proportions of fresh
and salt waters or we have no
oysters or clans. You may have
good oyster bottom, but the right
salinity must be present too, or
no oysters. Then we come above
the tidal part of the rivers where
the floods are the most devastating
and we find game affected. Land
.overflows, and not only crops are
destroyed and property damaged,
but wild life, of which we are
rapidly being depleted, is killed
off or driven to slaughter in the
uplands.
The control of floods is not only
possible, but it is frequently profit
able, not only to preventing the loss
of property, crops, livestock-the
tangibles-but health, as I said in
the beginning, is a great factor,
and new, rich lands in the bottoms
can be cultivated W bout the
constant risk of loss of crops and
without impairment of health.
Our other big activity-the larg-
est by many millions during the
past five years-has been military
construction. That has been dorm
ant in this district for more than