Federal Town-wide Dredge Permit In Limbo; County Dredge Stage Harbor Work Delayed

CHATHAM – While weather has delayed dredging to clear shoaling in the Stage Harbor entrance channel, officials are wondering when — and even if — the Army Corps of Engineers will approve a town-wide dredging permit.

 In February the Corps approved a one-time dredging permit for the Stage Harbor channel and Mill Creek, the areas where the county dredge will be working, according to Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. The dredge Sandshifter arrived in town last week, but heavy winds were preventing the towing of pipes necessary to get dredged sand to disposal areas on shore. The dredge instead headed to Falmouth to do two small projects, and will head back to Chatham once that work is completed, he said.

 “I think it’s almost entirely dependent on weather,” he said of the timing of the county dredge’s return to town.

 Once the county dredge is able to work, it will be clearing shoaling from the east side of the Stage Harbor entrance channel. The good news, Keon said, is that the shoaling rate in the channel was slower than expected over the winter. On the other hand, the channel between Morris Island and Monomoy appears to be shoaling more than in the recent past.

 “We may have less shoaling [in the Stage Harbor channel], but we may have a more difficult navigable route going forward, which isn’t a big surprise,” he said.

 Ever since the 2017 April Fool’s break in South Beach, predominantly east-to-west currents have created extensive shoaling in the Morris Island and Stage Harbor channels. The latter, the entry to the town’s busiest recreational harbor, has required annual dredging to maintain navigability. 

 “It’s not a lot of volume,” Keon said of the Stage Harbor channel, “something we were anticipating, but something we want to get rid of before it gets to be too much.” Half of the cost of the county work will be covered by a state dredging grant, with the town picking up the other half.

 While local, state and federal dredging permits are in place for this project, a more expansive town-wide dredging permit is still pending at the Army Corps level. It’s also unclear whether the Murden, the federal dredge that has cleared the Stage Harbor channel in the past, will be working in town this spring. Keon said Corps officials have told him it’s not a budget issue, but rather a question of whether there will be enough shoaling to require the services of the large hopper dredge. 

 Town-wide dredging permits covering the waters from Chatham Harbor to Mill Creek have been in place for a number of years but must be renewed on a regular basis. One issue that is “still in play” regarding the Army Corps permit, Keon said, is addressing the impact to the habitat of red knots, which stop here to feed on their migratory journey. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is providing regulatory guidance on the species, which is being added to other shorebird species that need to be considered under the dredging permit.

 Keon could not say if federal staff and budget cuts would impact the permit status.

 Meanwhile, work could soon get underway on repairs to a second revetment along the Morris Island shore at 75 Tilipi Run. The conservation commission is scheduled to review changes to the project on March 26, according to Natural Resources Director Greg Berman. 

 The failure of a neighboring revetment at 97 Tilipi Run caused many trees to fall into the channel. The seawall was repaired over the course of the fall and winter. Many of the trees were removed from the flats and channel off Morris Island by the town, with funding from the property owner, and the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose land west of the revetment is experiencing erosion and contributed fallen trees to the problem. Berman said more trees have fallen into the water, although not as many as last year. Officials will assess the situation in April to determine if there are trees in the water causing a hazard to navigation and whether to remove them, he said.