Army Corps Dredge Due In Chatham This Week

CHATHAM – Two months late, the Army Corps of Engineers is expected to begin dredging the Stage Harbor entrance channel this week. The Corps hopper dredge Murden was due to arrive in town at the end of this week, according to Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. It will spend approximately 13 days in town, dredging daily with 24 hour shifts. The Murden was originally scheduled to dredge the entrance to the town’s only federal channel in late June, but repairs diverted the vessel to New Jersey. The repairs took longer than expected, and after they were completed the dredge did work in Baltimore and New Jersey before heading north, Keon said. Even though it’s coming at the tail end of the boating season, the dredging is still welcome, he said. “Definitely it’s later in the season than we’d hoped,” he said. But shoaling in the channel is “not as severe as it has been” in years past, so the lack of dredging prior to the season did not cause any major problems. Over the summer, the channel was in “pretty good shape, more or less,” he added. The dredging can be considered “advanced maintenance,” Keon suggested, as it may lessen shoaling over the fall and winter. In recent years prevailing currents have brought sand into the channel from the Morris Island area, sometimes building up large shoals that impede navigation. That pressure from the east has lessened some, he said, but not stopped completely. “It’s definitely not as severe as it has been,” Keon said. There’s no guarantee that will continue, however, should the winter bring easterly winds and storms. “That will still push a lot of sand into the channel.” The channel is on the schedule for the Barnstable County dredge in the winter, and the Army Corps has budgeted to bring the Murden back next spring, Keon said, which will address any shoaling that happens over the fall and winter. Permitting could be an issue, however. The town is closing in on completing renewal of 10-year dredging permits for town waters. While he’s confident state permits will be in place in time for next spring, Keon said he’s not as certain about the timing of the necessary Army Corps permit. While the Corps can dredge under its own authority, work by the county dredge will require a new federal permit. The town received a state grant to cover the county dredging cost. If there are delays, the scheduled Corps dredging could be the only project to clear shoals for next summer’s boating season. “We are never sure if the Corps is going to come back, even though they’ve said they’re scheduled to come back in the spring,” Keon said. “You just never know. But when the Corps says its available to come, you don’t want to say ‘never mind.’” Material dredged from the channel in the coming weeks will be deposited in an offshore area off Harding’s Beach. Because of the restricted channel width, mariners are urged to exercise caution when navigating around the dredge. Navigation buoys may also be temporarily relocated during the dredging.