Port dredges sand from channel gap.

Byline: The Register-Guard

FLORENCE - The Port of Siuslaw's entrance is getting a bit deeper - 85,000 cubic yards deeper.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the river entrance Saturday. By the time crew members aboard the Yaquina are finished, they'll suck up enough sediment - mainly sand - to fill a five-story building the size of a football field, said Tom Kartrude, the Port of Siuslaw's port manager.

The entrance channel is supposed to be at least 18 feet deep, and the corps will `over-dredge' the channel to about 23 feet, which will allow sand to accumulate before another dredging is needed.

Until the dredging began, the channel was about 15 feet, Kartrude said.

The channel is dredged because when it becomes too shallow, waves form and break, creating a hazard to boats.

`We've had a couple of vessels damaged by waves breaking over them in the last couple of years, and we've had a couple driven into the rocks,' Kartrude said.

The Port of Siuslaw is home to about 40 commercial fishing boats.

Future funding for dredging is in question.

The Bush administration has proposed a dredging budget of only $466,000 for 2003.

Port of Siuslaw commissioners have asked for $100,000 in additional funding to begin engineering studies to repair the tip of the south jetty, which over time has been pushed north by the pounding seas.