OGDENSBURG -- The Ogdensburg harbor needs to be dredged and deepened, Sen. Charles Schumer said during a visit to the city today.

That can’t happen until the Army Corps of Engineers finishes a feasibility study they started in 2011.

“The harbor has been seeking funding to dredge the port for years, and it is high-time the Army Corps of Engineers provide this much-needed funding,” a news release from Schumer’s office says.

The harbor was last dredged in 1984.

Schumer said that while the harbor requires dredging on an infrequent basis, more than three decades of neglect on the federal level “has resulted in lost business opportunities at the port because the harbor’s main dock inaccessible for Seaway vessels.”

“This is causing unnecessary congestion, increased handling costs and lost business opportunities,” Schumer said.

The Ogdensburg Harbor is at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River and is the only U.S. port on the St. Lawrence Seaway and is the closest U.S. Seaway Port to Europe. It is also the northernmost port in New York.

The feasibility study is currently in its final public review stage. The next step includes final sign-off from the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, who directs all aspects of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program. The total cost of deepening the harbor to sea level, which is 27 feet, is estimated to cost $7.3 million, $2.7 of which would come from the federal government. Schumer said final approval from the assistant secretary would provide this $2.7 million in federal funds and allow the design and implementation phase to get started. The Army Corps recommends the deepening a second berth to 27 feet, which is seaway depth, with a channel width of 305 feet based on the cost benefit ratio and economic analyses.

This project comes at an opportune time for the Port of Ogdensburg, which, in 2015, received $10 million dollars in New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) funding to extend its dock wall, creating a second vessel berth at seaway depth by adding 500 feet of dock to the existing 1,200 feet, square up the port’s dock face and expand storage facilities. Taken together, the dredging, dock upgrades and storage expansion would enable two or more ships to come to port and unload their cargo. Currently, the port can handle only one ship at a time.

Schumer said that if funded, the dredging of the harbor would increase capacity, reduce costs and expand and diversify traffic at the port. “Without deepening the harbor, continued losses of channel depth would result in increased transportation costs between $45,000 and $79,000 annually or, at worst, the closing of the port to commercial traffic,” Schumer said.