Funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging projects seems be tenuous on an annual basis but this year, a potential $2.2 million unexpected emergency raises new questions about the Portland District's capabilities to maintain shipping channels.

Sheryl A. Carrubba, chief of Waterways Maintenance Section of the Corps' Portland District, said the agency has been left with $7.5 million for its chief dredging contract this year, down from $13.2 million that was used last year to dredge the Columbia River, including its mouth, as well as Newport and Coos Bay.

"It's put us in a situation where we are really strapped for being able to put out our normal dredging contracts," Carrubba told the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay commissioners on Wednesday.

Carrubba said a stagnant budget, emergency expenses and the diversion of funds to help pay for homeland security programs has cut deeply into the Corps' budget and ability to pay for dredging.

Much of the hit came due to a $13.6 million emergency expense to make repairs to the John Day Dam. In addition, Carrubba said the Corps recently was pooled nationally to contribute $2.2 million and help fund a $22.75 million emergency in the Missouri River.

Recently returned from Washington, D.C., interim General Manager Mike Gaul said he was told that the loss of the $2.2 million was not a sure thing and that no decision had been made yet about diverting that money from the Portland District.

Gaul said that as of a week ago, he was told the district was acting prematurely by presuming the loss of that funding.

Carrubba, however, said she received the approval from the Northwest Division of the Corps to transfer those funds from the Portland District's budget.

"The money has not physically left the district but we are not entitled to take it," she said.

Because of that, Corps officials are talking about if they'll be awarding dredging contracts rather than when or how they'll try to piece that maintenance work together.

Currently, Carrubba said, the Corps has eliminated Newport from its North Coast Hopper contract, although it will include the dredging of Coos Bay as well as the Columbia and its mouth. Carrubba said the agency has budgeted for more time from its Yaquina dredge to take care of Newport.

In a worst-case scenario, Carrubba said the Corps would pool its resources and ask for more work from its two dredges. It also would work with locally affected individuals to determine where the worst dredging problems are and attempt to fix those problems first.

"It's not doom and gloom right now but it's pretty tight," she said.

But another difference from years past, Carrubba said, is that the district's flexibility to borrow from future projects has been limited. When funding wasn't expected to be spent at once, Carrubba said, the Corps shifted its funding to pay for dredging contracts. This year, she said, the district's ability to borrow from itself is more limited.

Locally, the Corps is similarly strapped. John Craig, the Corps' local operations division manager, said the agency has an overall budget of $3.6 million for navigation projects in Coos Bay. That's down from about $4.1 million last year but there's also more work to be done.

Craig said the Corps' dredging of river miles 12 to 15, done every two years, is supposed to be done again this coming year. In addition, a sediment study done only every five years also is scheduled to be done this year.

While the bulk of the $3.6 million is to be used for dredging, Craig said the district also has to fund engineering studies, environmental compliance, evaluation and maintenance of the jetty system and real estate.

The Corps' national budget has taken steady hits throughout the past six years. In 1998, the Corps had approximately $6 billion slated for navigation work. This year, the Corps' budget was reduced to $5 billion and in the next fiscal cycle, the budget is proposed to be reduced to $4.2 billion.

"It's a downward spiral," Gaul said.

Commissioner Brady Scott said the lack of funding is commonplace now throughout many aspects of the federal budget, not just the Corps.

"There is just a general underfunding of infrastructure, period," he said.

Commission President Dave Kronsteiner said the port has to fight for the funding through larger organizations like the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, which is a unified group of Northwest ports.

"Our job is to pull the ports together and the Congressional groups, too," he said.