Posted on June 2, 2019
OCEAN CITY, Md.- The U.S. Army Corps of engineers held a meeting at the Worcester County Library in Berlin on Thursday night to discuss sediment build-up occurring in the Inlet.
Fishermen, and recreational boaters say the build-up is the worst after a big storm and can cause safety risks, and can be costly.
Engineers say they try to dredge as often as they can, but dredging is only a temporary solution. Sometimes, the build-up can cause recreational boats and commercial boats to run aground.
“Things that we’re thinking about are deepening the channel, possibly relocating the federal channel, so we would move the channel to where there is already deeper water, to stop the need for so much dredging, and then maybe a structural solution, to reconfigure the jetties, or maybe building a structure off of the jetties,” said Jacqui Seiple, project manager with the Army Corp.
Engineers say dredging will still be needed at some point, but with permanent fixes to the Inlet, they hope this will become less frequent.
Fisherman in the area, like Raleigh Sadler, said he supports the permanent solutions for the Inlet. He’s the manager of Martin Fish Company in Ocean City and says the build-up has left some of his boats stranded–unable to get through the inlet.
“We’ve had boats come in and get stuck and have to sit there for four hours–and we have a crew sitting here waiting and we can’t get the fish off,” Sadler said.
Sometimes, this can cost Sadler, and other fishermen thousands of dollars.
“You have to go with the market price and the market demand. If the boat can’t get in here and you miss one day, sometimes you’ll lose ten to twenty thousand dollars that day if you don’t get the fish there that day.”
The Army Corps hopes to select a permanent solution by the middle of next year, and begin construction by 2021.
Source: wboc.com
