For years, fishers, swimmers and environmental groups have complained that mud and silt from dredging in the Mobile Bay shipping channel has smothered seagrass, harmed oysters and clouded water that was once far clearer. Now those complaints are closer to prompting a federal ban on the practice, known as “thin-layer placement.”
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., said he included an amendment in the 2026 Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, that would prohibit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from using thin-layer placement in most circumstances. “It essentially removes that option away from the Corps to dispose of dredged material,” Figures said. “They can no longer just spray it across the bay.”
The Corps has been completing a major effort to deepen and widen the Mobile shipping channel so larger ships can access the Port of Mobile, and has used thin-layer placement to dispose of dredged material during that work. William Strickland, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper, said the practice clouds the water, blocks sunlight from reaching seagrass and can smother oysters, reducing marine life in the areas where it is used. The Army Corps has defended the practice, saying the sediment is a natural resource that can provide a beneficial use to the ecosystem when managed properly.
Alabama passed a state law in February limiting the practice, requiring that 70% of dredged material go toward beneficial use projects and excluding thin-layer placement from that category. The federal amendment would go further, allowing exceptions only for emergencies or when no timely alternative exists. The measure advanced unanimously out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and awaits a vote from the full House, with Figures saying he expects bipartisan support to carry it through the Senate as well. The broader WRDA bill also includes $50 million for infrastructure projects across south Alabama, including wastewater improvements in Black Belt communities that lack access to public sewer systems.