Rep. Peter DeFazio announced yesterday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will allocate up to $6.5 million in funding this year to address Port Orford’s much-needed repairs for its port’s failed breakwater.
“ This is excellent news for Port Orford, ” said DeFazio . “ This community relies on the port as its economic engine, and fixing the breakwater is essential to its success. For too long Port Orford has been overlooked by the Corps. Due to years of storms, the breakwater system is in need of serious repair, and without annual dredging continued shoaling creates an extremely dangerous situation. I applaud the Army Corps for including this essential funding in its Work Plan.”
In February 2018, DeFazio sent a letter to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Corps requesting that funds for Port Orford be included in the Corps’s Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) Work Plan.
The FY18 Work Plan released on June 7 did not include funding to repair the breakwater system. On July 5, the Corps announced that additional projects, including Port Orford’s breakwater, would be added the FY18 Work Plan because additional disaster assistance funding was made available by Congress through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
The Port of Garibaldi will also receive funding to address critical repairs needed to maintain safety over the bar at Tillamook Bay’s South Jetty.