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draft amendments to the Act. The need for dredging the main 
navigation channels, anchorage areas, turning basins, entrance 
channels, slips and berths associated with the Harbor is clear. 
The Harbor's natural depth is 18 feet. The Army and users of 
the Port maintain channels at depths of up to 45 feet. Without 
dredging and a feasible means of disposing of dredged spoils, 
the Port would gradually close. Port activities currently pro- 
vide almost 60,000 jobs, $400 million in various regional tax 
revenues and almost $6 billion in commerce. The Port serves as 
an entry point for goods used all over the Nation. To maintain 
the Harbor, some 10 million cubic yards of dredged material is 
removed each year, and deposited at the Mud Dump Site. 
I would like to point out that dredged material is sediment 
transported from the estuary and channels and then redeposited 
in the marine environment. Dredging activities merely accel- 
erate the rate at which sediment is transported to the Hudson- 
Raritan Plume, which is within the Bight Apex. The amount of 
dredged material deposited in the ocean by man is but a small 
fraction of the material that is naturally transported by rivers 
and streams. 
In the last twenty years, there has been a great deal of 
research and monitoring to track and analyze dredged material 
deposited in the marine environment. The most recent study was 
conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and is a draft 
environmental impact statement. This study focused on the pre- 
SU Qo 
