Posted on June 14, 2016
By Shaylon Cochran, KDLG
The Port of Dillingham is ready for another busy fishing season. The docks are in and the dredging is finished. Harbormaster Jean Barrett says the US Army Corps of Engineers is removing more material from the port every year.
“What we’ve noticed with the warmer winters we’ve been having, our mud and silt levels have gone up. Three years ago we pumped, I believe, 97,000 cubic yards out of here. Last year was 113,000 cubic yards and I think this year it’s going to be up (around) 126,000 cubic yards.”
For the past decade, all that material has been pumped into Nushagak Bay. But there’s a concern that it isn’t all being carried away by the current, as promised by the Corps. Barrett says it’s important to keep the numbers in context.
“A lot of people attribute the changing of the channels in the Nushagak to the amount of mud we pump out of here and, you know, we’re not doing the Nushagak any favors by recycling like we do; by pumping it out into the water. But it’s a postage stamp compared to how many millions and billions of cubic yards of silt are moving around out there on a daily basis.”
The preferred method would be to pump it all inland, potentially creating usable real estate. But it would cost in the neighborhood of $20 million to go that route, a number the Corps says is too high for its budget for the foreseeable future. The Corps says it would agree to pump inland if the land could be secured; a yet unrealized venture.
Source: KDLG
