It is time for our New Jersey and Delaware senators to take a strong stance against any further federal funding for deepening the Delaware.  

• The GAO has spoken for a third time that the Army Corps has mispresented costs and benefits of deepening by providing flawed, dated and inaccurate information to the public and decisionmakers.
• Senator Specter will soon be out of office and unable to maneuver funding for the project as his clout should be gone.
• Two states and five environmental organizations have filed lawsuits based on violations of state and federal law by the Army Corps of Engineers - it is bad precedent for the Congress and the President to support the violation of law and the stripping states of their legal authorities for a damaging federal project.
• There is a federal court injunction in place, preventing the project from pursuing any further than the initial 12 miles done, a 12 miles that is located in the middle of the project and so of zero value.
• The Army Corps ignored limitations placed in previous funding by Congress and so should not be trusted with one more dime, even if that dime comes with strings attached -- last year's use of federal funds was contingent on the Army Corps getting a Delaware State permit, something the Army Corps has failed to do and yet they maneuvered the start of the project anyway.

Our Senators need to stand firm, vocal and be active in preventing any additional federal funding for deepening.  The Delaware Riverkeeper Network believes that never is the time for this project to move forward because it will inflict such tremendous damage.  But whether you agree with us or not, whatever you might think about this project's ultimate value, now is clearly not the time.  Federal and State laws must be complied with, the rights of States to protect their communities and to enforce the law must be preserved, and the Army Corps must be held to the highest standards of professionalism and environmental protection.

Let our New Jersey and Delaware Senators know that you want them to use all means necessary to prevent any further federal funding of deepening until the Army Corps has completed an up-to-date and complete Environmental Impact Statement; has proven that deepening will not do damage to our River, communities and river-dependent jobs; and has shown it can and will comply with all state and federal laws.