Dredging Update Given in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian held a town hall meeting at the Howard S. Stainton Senior Center May 21 about the resort’s dredging plans. Its focus was to continue to explain the city’s efforts to deepen waters on the bay side. 
This issue has been one of the more contentious and long-standing problems to face Gillian, his administration, and city council.
Residents have complained that they cannot use the back bay waters for the enjoyment of boating, sailing, and other aquatic pursuits.
The primary purpose of the meeting was for ACT Engineers to present an update on the situation with the city’s 2016 dredge program, present their short and long-term planning, and to discuss plans to remove the dredged material to make room for new projects.
Council hired ACT Engineers of Robbinsville in 2015 to develop a dredging master plan for back bay lagoons and waterways which have become clogged with silt and rendered difficult or in some locations impossible to navigate. 
ACT’s contract includes developing short-term plans for immediately addressing some of the problems and a longer-term strategy for “generations to come,” said Carol Beske, project head.
ACT informed the group of over 100 that they had done a tip-to-tip survey of the impacted area. ACT Engineers, working with Anchor QEA, have reviewed historic dredging data, permits, and dredging plans.
The city is learning the full extent of the problem now that ACT has conducted the first comprehensive survey of lagoons, harbors, and coves.
Surveys of 10 of the impacted areas were on display for residents to review. These bathymetric surveys graphically illustrated the current situation of the bayside and revealed that a total of 1 million cubic yards of silt must be dredged.
The 1 million cubic yards of sediment is nearly double the previous estimates. “To find out that we have over 1 million cubic yards to get rid of is unbelievable,” Gillian said. The mayor noted that the city had dedicated $20 million over the next five years to remedy the problem.
To begin unclogging the lagoons, the city will also have to clear one of its present disposal sites, Site 83, where the dredge spoils are stored temporarily before being hauled to a Wildwood landfill. 
Site 83, near the 34th Street Bridge, can hold 300,000 cubic yards of dredge material. On May 16 construction started on a temporary access road to Site 83 from Roosevelt Boulevard, making transporting materials offsite easier and will speed up the removal of the dredge spoils. Clearing material from Site 83 would make room for new dredging projects to resume because the site already is approved by environmental regulators.
ACT Engineering is also exploring the possibility of using some of the dredge materials to help restore eroded wetlands, creating, even more, shoreline protection for Ocean City during coastal storms.
ACT representative said two lagoons, Snug Harbor, and Glen Cove, are scheduled to be dredged starting in September.
Bay Bridge, at the foot of the Route 52 causeway, Carnival Bayou Lagoon, between 16th and 17th streets, and South Harbor, between Tennessee Avenue and Spruce Road, are also being considered possible dredging sites this year.
According to state environmental regulations, the window for dredging extends from July 1 to Dec. 1. 
Although the city will clean out lagoons and harbors, it will be up to individual property owners to dredge their boat slips at their expense. Gillian explained that the city simply cannot assume the liability – or cost – to dredge private slips. ACT indicated that if one used Avalon as a past example owners may have to pay about $14,000 to have their slips dredged.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.