CHARLESTON - Commissioners of the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay listened Wednesday night to a proposal from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that may expedite the construction of a turning basin in the lower Coos Bay waterway.

At the Port Commission's meeting in the recreation room of the Charleston Marina RV Park, Doug Putman, a representative of the Corps of Engineers Portland District, outlined Section 107 of the federal agency's statute, which allows funding to be allocated to small navigation projects without appropriations from Congress.

For the planned turning circle to qualify for Section 107 funding, the Army Corps must first appraise the site and project to determine whether it involves a federal interest, Putman told the commission. If it does, the federal government would pay the first $100,000 toward a feasibility study; additional expenses from the study would be shared with the Port.

The Army Corps must then declare the project economically justifiable and environmentally sound, he added, before planning can begin. Construction costs also would be borne jointly by the Port and federal government, with the Port paying about 35 percent. Construction would have to begin no later than three years after the start of the feasibility study.

Whether construction can be funded through Section 107 will depend on whether the project would significantly increase cargo traffic into the Bay Area, according to Putman.

"(The economic justification) is the future development that would result from a development like this," he said. "Working together, we can determine what those benefits can be."

Federal spending for a Section 107 project is capped at $4 million. If a project's cost exceeds that total, Congress must approve its funding.

Allan Rumbaugh, the Port's general manager, called the Corps of Engineers program a possible way to avoid having the turning-basin project delayed by struggles to win funding from Congress. He pointed to the long-protracted project to deepen the Coos Bay channel, authorized by the federal government in 1983 but not begun for 13 years for want of appropriations. (The deepening of the waterway was completed a year later, in 1997.)

"This process could save us many years," he told commissioners, "especially since it doesn't require getting congressional approval to get started."

By allowing ships to avoid negotiating two spans across the waterway - the Central Oregon & Pacific railroad swing bridge and the McCullough Bridge - a turning circle would allow larger vessels to use the channel more easily and cheaply, according to Harbormaster Mike Gaul.

"The cost of operating deep-draft cargo vessels runs from $14,000 to $25,000 every 24 hours," he said Friday. "Any time you can minimize their operating time, you're saving money.

"When you have to take vessel through two bridges, one (the McCullough) with a vertical restriction and one (the CORP span) with a horizontal restriction, it's a challenge," Gaul added.

In other business, the Port Commission:

n appointed Commissioner Jon Barton as the agency's delegate to the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association; and

n renewed its contract with the Charleston Sanitary District to provide sewer service to the Charleston Marina RV Park.