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Language included in a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week could be the first step in the long-awaited return of the Army Corps of Engineers to federal navigation channels in Chatham and Harwich.
The Water Resources Development Act, passed late last month, includes language that reverses a Bush administration policy of cutting off Corps funding for dredging small harbors. Under the policy, cargo tonnage was used to determine which harbors get dredges, making it virtually impossible for small recreational and commercial harbors such as Stage Harbor in Chatham and Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich to compete for scarce Corps funding.
For many years, the entrance channels to both harbors were maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. Both Stage Harbor and Saquatucket Harbor haven’t been dredged by the Corps since 2000.
Chatham is currently pursing $300,000 in funding from the state seaport advisory council to pay for permitting and dredging of the Stage Harbor channel, according to Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. He expected to travel to Fall River next Tuesday to present the case for funding.
Harwich, too, is pursuing its own dredging tack, working with two private property owners who are willing to fund some dredging in exchange for having the sand placed on their beaches, according to Harbormaster Thomas Leach.
In both cases, the towns must first obtain permits to dredge within the federal channel. Harwich has applied to the state for emergency permission to dredge a bar across the channel that only leaves about five feet of water at low tide, Leach said. That’s going to be a problem for about a third of the boaters who use the harbor.
Conditions in the Stage Harbor channel “are not good,” Keon said. “There is more shoaling needs there now than I think I’ve seen since I’ve been here. And it’s getting worse.” The last time there was any dredging in the channel was two years ago, when the Barnstable County dredge Codfish cleared some shoals in the southern section of the waterways to mine sand to nourish Cockle Cove Beach.
Harbormaster Stuart Smith said there may be as little as three feet of water at low tide in some sections of the channel. “That’s supposed to be 10 feet deep,” he said, adding that he expects many boaters to run aground this summer.
“We may even have people not come here because of that,” he said.
The Army Corps has dredged Aunt Lydia’s Cove annually, but funds for that work are added to the federal budget as an earmark, thanks mostly to the initiative of Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy. The Army Corps dredge Currituck will be back in Chatham Harbor in June, according to Delahunt Chief of Staff Mark Forest.
Language in the water resources act also frees up the Corps to reprogram funds left over from one dredging project to another; that capability had been taken away from the agency, Forest said. Still, Corps funding is tight, and with 171 small harbors and ports to maintain in New England alone, it’s going to be difficult to get the money to expand dredging operations, he said. Much of the Corps funding has been soaked up by the war in Iraq, he added.
“This is a big win for fishermen and mariners throughout New England,” read a statement issued by Delahunt, who authored the language reversing the Bush administration policy on small harbors.
“The administration’s policy to base dredging decisions on cargo tonnage discriminates against small harbors throughout the country. This policy hurts small coastal towns since it ignores the significant benefits associated with ferry traffic, commercial fishing and recreational boating activity in small ports,” he said.
Small harbors are often “the engines to local and regional economies,” added Keon, who worked for the Army Corps before becoming coastal resources director. He said he was pleased to hear that the changes had passed in the House version of the bill, which he said was also slated to include language deauthorization a portion of the federal channel in Aunt Lydia’s Cove to allow the town to install new floats.
Having the ability to reprogram funds will help free the Corps to use its resources more efficiently, Keon said.
“This reestablishes the importance of this type of program to the Corps’ mission,” he said.
Even if the Corps is able to dredge Stage Harbor again, Keon intends to pursue obtaining town permits to dredge the federal channel. “We need to be prepared to have a fallback position,” he said. It will take six to eight months to secure the permits, and because of likely restrictions on dredging in the spring, due to winter flounder and horseshoe crab spawning, it will likely be fall 2008 before the town is ready to dredge Stage Harbor.
Harwich is on a somewhat faster track, but, like Chatham, wants the permits in place to dredge Saquatucket on its own. Both town plans a different type of dredging, hydraulic rather than the Currituck’s hopper-type dredge, and will pump the sand to shore rather than dispose of it at sea. Harwich hopes to have the permits in place in time to dredge in the fall.
“If by September some decisions has rolled around and suddenly money is available for the Currituck to return here in 2008, maybe we’ll want to rethink that,” said Leach. Adding that he’d “love to see [the Corps] here on a regular basis.”
Forest said Delahunt will work with Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy to ensure the language is retained in the Senate version of the water resources bill.
To read Delahunt's press release please click here.
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