The Chesapeake Chunk of the Cromnibus Bill

Spending bill contains money for local waterways

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has announced the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 includes $70.3 million for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in Maryland.

The legislation has passed both the Senate and the House, and now heads to the White House to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.
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Among the projects:

$15.1 million for the continuation of the Poplar Island environmental restoration project, which is taking clean dredged materials from the shipping lanes leading to the Port of Baltimore and using it to stabilize the shoreline, create habitat area and restore the wetlands of one of the Chesapeake Bay's most valuable island ecosystems off of Talbot County.

$23.725 million for annual maintenance dredging of the Port of Baltimore's 50-foot shipping channels, making it one of the few East Coast ports deep enough to accommodate the super container ships coming through the Suez Canal and soon from the Panama Canal next year.

$22.355 million for the C&D Canal for annual maintenance dredging of its shipping channels, which serve as a shortcut for vessels traveling between Baltimore and points north.

$600,000 to continue ship simulation modeling in the Baltimore Harbor shipping channels for channel widening to more efficiently accommodate super container ships from the Suez and Panama Canals. The current widths prohibit these mega ships from passing each other. . . .

I seem to find a theme here. I think it's wonderful that the Port of Baltimore is busy, making jobs. and bringing goods and services to Maryland. But can't it find a way to do it without Federal money?