Kat Cammack secures funding for work on opening inlet to Gulf of Mexico, Suwannee River

The Big Bend access to the Gulf of Mexico that meets the Suwanee River has long been hampered by shallow and questionably navigable depths at the pass to open waters.

U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, a Republican from Gainesville, said she’s making progress to getting that area known as the McGriff Channel, or “Wadley Pass,” in Dixie County closer to becoming more manageable for recreational and commercial boating use.

Commack announced funding for potential work on the McGriff Channel has been added to the Water Resources Development Act. She had secured votes in the U.S. House to add the funding to that act, but she announced U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, included the matching provision in a year-end package from the Senate.

“I’m thrilled to have secured this crucial step in getting the challenges with McGriff Channel resolved,” said Cammack. “This issue has persisted for far too long, and it’s time we get the Jacksonville Army Corps back on track to advance this project. From here, we will be keeping the pressure on the Army Corps to ensure this project gets done in a timely manner. I look forward to sharing more updates later this year as we gather further information on potential dredging and restoration efforts.”

That funding will be used to develop impact studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine how to proceed with clearing the McGriff Channel. Cammack said the latest development is key because the funding will counteract a 2021 study that concluded, in a preliminary manner, that dredging the channel was not economically feasible and that agencies should not proceed with it.

But Cammack has been advocating dredging the pass, at least in part, for the inlet, which is growing increasingly impassable. Channel markers and other navigation signage are missing from the Gulf’s entryway into the Suwannee. The lack of dredging, Cammack argues, prevents even small vessels from getting through the area. In addition, recent hurricanes, which have hit the Big Bend area directly, have made longstanding navigation issues even worse.