"If we have a war of Pennsylvania against New Jersey to deepen this port to 45 feet, Pennsylvania's going to win," says Specter. But the GAO report deals a blow to plans to deepen the river.

While arguments for and against deepening have often been characterized as jobs versus the environment, New Jersey Democratic Congressman Rob Andrews says the GAO finds significant flaws in the plan's economics.

"The basic conclusion of the General Accounting Office," says Andrews, "Is that for every 100 dollars the taxpayers invest in this project, we will get 49 dollars back." Andrews says that's quite different from the 140 dollars the Army Corps of Engineers promised in a 1992 study.

Representative Andrews and several other New Jersey politicians called for an independent analysis by the GAO earlier this year. Andrews has been a vocal opponent of deepening, and has frequently expressed concerns about the impact of dredging on the region's drinking water, and the impact of placing dredge material near communities in Southern New Jersey.

While the report finds that the Army Corps of Engineers, charged with carrying out the project, did meet most of the environmental requirements, the fiscal miscalculations were serious enough to warrant a reevaluation of the plan.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Toricelli says he's glad the GAO has suggested suspending the project indefinitely. But he adds that any future plans for deepening need to do a better job of addressing the concerns of all those involved.

"Any expansion, further widening, and deepening must await not only a decision that it is economically justifiable, but that every one of these communities in New Jersey knows that it will never be dumped upon again by dredge spoils from Pennsylvania."

But Senator Specter says he's more than willing to negotiate if it means improving the economic viability of the port. "The business about where the deposits will be left, I think can be worked out," he says. "I don't think that's a major problem."

He also says he knows the port is important for business not just in Pennsylvania, but in New Jersey and Delaware, and he's most worried about the consequences of not deepening it. "If this port stays at 40 feet instead of 45 feet, this port will be the most shallow port on the east coast," says Specter, "And this region will lose tens of thousands of jobs."

His sentiments are echoed by Delaware River Port Authority chairman Manny Stamatakis. Stamatakis says so far the port of Philadelphia/Camden has held up well against other ports on the east coast that have already deepened their channels. But he's worried about the future.

"Pennsylvania has invested nearly 100 million dollars in double-stack service, and better roads," he says. "And that has enabled us to remain competitive. But if we don't deepen this channel we're going to lose our competitive edge."

Stamatakis says deepening the channel allows ships carrying heavier cargo to come up the channel and if the port remains the highest in the region, then it stands to reason that the heavier ships will unload elsewhere. But the GAO report questions those numbers and calls for a complete reanalysis before any work can continue.