Posted on August 14, 2018
The conservation commission on Wednesday unanimously approved an emergency dredging of a narrow passageway between a newly formed large shoal to the west and the north tip of North Beach Island.
This northern inlet avenue has become the most reliable for boaters and the commercial fleet form Chatham Harbor and Pleasant Bay.
Director of Coastal Resources Ted Keon first presented the plan to the commission on July 25; it received support from local fishermen but concerns from property owners on North Chatham’s Ministers Point.
At the earlier meeting, Keon explained that the southern inlet opposite Lighthouse Beach began to shoal up and has become difficult to navigate and practically impossible for deeper vessels to get through.
The northern inlet is capturing a lot of the incoming and outgoing flow of water and the southern inlet is shutting down.
“It’s shoaling in, there isn’t sufficient flushing going on to get rid of the sand coming down naturally,” he said. The commercial fishing fleet has pretty much abandoned this avenue to the ocean.
The area the town will dredge is just outside a previously permitted dredging zone. Keon showed photos indicating the difference in shoaling and channel situations from last summer to this summer, after winter storms altered the area.
North Beach Island has pulled to the south of where the existing dredging footprint was. He said the town has modified the existing town wide dredging permit to include a fairly comprehensive addition to address ongoing and anticipated changes on channels running near the new inlet.
This summer there’s been further erosion of both sides of the inlet, and an influx of sand, and the channel running through Pleasant Bay is taking a direct line through the inlet, according to Keon.
“This is the most severe hazard in navigation I’ve seen not only in my time here but anywhere I’ve been in my career,” Deputy Harbormaster Jason Holm said at the July 25 meeting. He said three different channels are converging into one.
This creates a rescue collision hazard or a situation where a rescue boat would not be able to reach the area if a boat goes down.
“The whole idea is to follow and chase, if you will, the good water, the deeper water, and not [try to force] dredging in an area where the natural system is trying to fill it in,” Keon said. “This really minimizes dredging, minimizes impacts and it’s a much more effective way to deal with systems like ours which are very, very dynamic.”
But not everyone supports the emergency dredging, particularly a group of adjacent second homeowners on North Chatham’s Ministers Point, whose properties abut the proposed North Inlet dredging.
“My clients are not against the fishermen,” Paul Revere III, the attorney representing a number of property owners on Ministers Point, said on July 25. “What they’re against is willy-nilly, quick dredging projects that change flows within the area that impact their property.”
Keon indicated that this dredging project would be a short-term solution for this summer. The town will later look to dredge a passageway for the long-term.
Revere said the property owners at Ministers Point have been asking for meetings with the town to deal with channels and erosion in this area since May and there’s never been a meeting. He also said Keon is quoted in May saying the town needs to apply to dredge this same area.
“The town claims the dredging of the North inlet is an emergency but it doesn’t fit the Army Corps of Engineer’s definition of an emergency because the town has been aware of the problem since early May,” property owner Gerald A. Milden wrote in a position paper that represents opinions of 10 abutting property owners.
“It appears that by using the term ‘emergency’ there’s a procedure to obtain permits without the usual review process.”
In the paper, Milden claimed that “massive shoreline problems created by the town’s dredging Aunt Lydia’s Cove in April 2017 are also emergencies, maybe more so than the ones claimed by the commercial fishermen.”
Property owners are concerned this emergency dredging could have adverse affects on their shoreline.
“The twice daily rip current has already destroyed a perfectly sound revetment directly across from the proposed North Inlet dredging site, ruined a coastal salt marsh and created a dangerous situation at all of North Chatham public beaches,” he wrote.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Milden said the town did not complete the dredging plan they presented to the homeowners in 2017, which had included a major channel that was supposed to be dredged from the fish pier north to Strong Island.
Director of Natural Resources Robert Duncanson said the town never made this agreement and that this was only a footprint for dredging if needed.
“There’s $45 million worth of property that’s about to go into the drink,” Milden told the commission. Milden was cut off by conservation commission chairman Michael Tompsett during his comments on Wednesday, after Tompsett said Milden was using offensive language.
Tompsett said the town understands the concerns of residents of Ministers Point and acknowledged letters they sent to the commission. But he said the main issue is about dredging for boating safety.
Commercial fishermen spoke out on the issue at both the July 25 and Wednesday meetings. Peter Taylor said the fishermen aren’t asking for all shoals to be knocked down but just so two boats can pass.
“I know the rich people from Ministers Point are [expletive] about this,” he said.
Currently boaters have to go within 20 feet of the beach in the dark and fog in order to get their vessels out. “We’re not asking for a lot, we’re asking for basically another width of a road,” he said.
“I almost had a collision there two days ago, it’s the worst part of my day right now, getting in and out of that corner,” John Our said. Due to foggy conditions, Our said his and another boat missed by inches.
Both Taylor and Our said the commercial fleet will communicate with each other but recreational boaters don’t, and they usually ride too fast through the channel – making it more dangerous.
Chatham resident Bob Long suggested Wednesday that dredging the channel won’t stop boaters from speeding. He said that previous dredging in Chatham has had adverse affects on private property owners before.
For now, the dredging has been approved by the commission but additional state and Army Corps permitting is needed for the project to move forward. Keon said if the plan is approved, the project would take around two weeks to complete.
Source: Chatham
