Efficient Dredging Means More Jobs

For every $1 billion spent on civil works projects by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, about 20,000 jobs are created, Army senior leaders said.

During a February 11 hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, subcommittee on energy and water, regarding the fiscal year 2016 civil works budget, Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, told lawmakers that money spent on civil works projects means jobs for Americans.

Bostick told lawmakers that 10,000 full-time jobs are created that are directly related to each $1 billion spent on civil works projects, while an additional 10,000 jobs are created that are indirectly related to such spending.

He also said that the Corps’ efforts to maintain waterways, such as on the Mississippi, are also responsible for keeping Americans employed, as well as for bolstering economic activity.

“If you look along Mississippi, there are a lot of jobs that are dependent, and a lot of businesses that are dependent on the efficient dredging of the Mississippi,” Bostick said.

“The greater that capacity … the more population and more businesses that would develop and benefit from it,” he said.

Bostick estimated that the Corps’ work along the Mississippi benefits some 800,000 people. “Their livelihood depends on efficient flow of the river,” he said.

Bostick also cited, as part of the Sandy response, the recent completion of the “North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study.” The study was commissioned by Congress in 2013, and looks at the risk along 31,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean shoreline from North Carolina to New Hampshire.

Source: army.mil