Dollars for Dredging

Financial Assistance Worth $3.9 Million

Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Co., a six-dry-dock, eight-pier shipyard on the Staten Island side of the Kill Van Kull, has been an integral part of the NY/NJ shipping industry for more than 100 years. Specializing in tugboat work, Caddell tradesmen are truly a full-service group, having also recently rehabilitated the spars and rigging of the U.S. Coast Guard tall ship Eagle, replaced the drive unit of a Staten Island Ferry and overhauled the wheel assembly of the Half Moon historic replica (below), among many other jobs.

Like many maritime businesses in the New York Harbor area that are faced with the costly but essential prospect of dredging, Caddell was having problems with accumulating silt. If the deepening sediment -- contaminated by dioxin and other poisons that had flowed from former chemical factory sites on the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers -- was not dredged, Caddell could soon be limited to working on shallow draft barges. And, unfortunately, the shipyard had more than 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated mud to deal with.

Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey offered help. In early November, the two agencies announced an agreement to pay for the disposal costs of 106,000 cubic yards of Caddell's dredged material. Caddell will pay to dredge, test and transport the material, but now the company may dump it without charge in the Newark Bay Confined Disposal Facility (NBCDF), a pit in Newark Bay dug expressly to accommodate contaminated silt. Ordinarily, the Port Authority charges companies $36.75 to dispose of each cubic yard of sediment in the NBCDF.

Government officials and waterfront leaders hailed the announcement as emblematic of a region finally seeing the value of investing in its working waterfront. This announcement comes several weeks after the City committed millions of dollars to upgrade the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal at the Brooklyn-Port Authority Marine Terminal in Red Hook.

"Waterfront businesses are a critical part of our economy, and we think it's important to do whatever is necessary to create room for them to thrive," said Peter W. Davidson, Executive Director of ESDC.

"I am pleased that Empire State Development Corporation and the Port Authority have stepped in to fund Cadell's request for bi-state dredging monies," said Representative Michael E. McMahon. "Caddell has been providing necessary services in the port of New York and New Jersey for over 100 years now and is an important part of the economy of Staten Island and the greater New York/New Jersey port. This funding will ensure that Caddell can remain competitive with other dry docks along the east coast and allow it to provide hundreds of local jobs. This is the type of prudent decision that governments should be coming to with regard to assisting local businesses."

"We applaud the State's support of Caddell Dry Dock," said New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky. "Dredging at Caddell's facility in Staten Island will ensure that this important waterfront business is able to continue to maintain safe and efficient operations within New York Harbor. As reported in our recent Maritime Support Services Location Study, the work boat and vessel repair industry in the Port of New York generates an economic impact of more than $2 billion a year for the New York region. With today's announcement, Caddell, a leading participant in that industry for over a hundred years, will be able to continue to play its central role going forward."

"The Empire State Development Corporation support for dredging for Caddell Dry Dock is a critical and necessary measure to aid the maritime industry in New York," said Roland Lewis, President and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. "While the big international shippers get much of their dredging bills covered by the federal government, small business like Caddell and other maritime operations are stuck with increasingly large bills. These businesses are the backbone and support structure upon which the region's 250,000-job shipping industry relies. ESD's funding for this project is fair and smart public policy which will diversify our economy and preserve good blue-collar jobs."

"We're grateful for the money," said Steve Kalil, Caddell president. "There are a lot of restrictions on how you take the mud and put it in the pit. But this money helps. No doubt about that."