Posted on March 10, 2022
HARKERS ISLAND — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may sign off Friday on prep work for dredging Barden Inlet and associated channels.
The National Park Service at Cape Lookout National Seashore, in partnership with the Carteret County Board of Commissioners and County Shore Protection Office, are scheduled to meet Friday with the ACE to discuss starting an environmental assessment to dredge Barden Inlet. NPS Cape Lookout superintendent Jeff West said in a March 2 email to the News-Times this area is locally known not only as Barden Inlet, but also the “drain” and the “S turns.”
“It’s a congressionally mandated channel and is the responsibility of USACE (to maintain),” Mr. West said.
Shoaling in Barden Inlet became a problem in late 2017. Mr. West said the U.S. Coast Guard had to remove navigation aids because the inlet didn’t meet the standards for a navigable channel.
Despite the removal of navigation aids, Mr. West said local boaters still use the deepest parts of the inlet channel. However, he said this isn’t a long-term solution.
“We need a way to manage the waterways long-term,” Mr. West said, “not just for the park, but also for anyone boating inside Core Sound.”
Due to the majority of the channel lying outside Cape Lookout, the NPS needed partners to get Barden Inlet dredged. The park service formed a cooperative management agreement with county commissioners and the Shore Protection Office in 2019 with the purpose of establishing and maintaining waterways to various areas in the park, according to Mr. West.
“Maintaining these waterways fit hand-in-glove with the county’s efforts to get dredging done throughout Core Sound,” he said.
County and NPS officials negotiated with both state officials and the ACE for this dredging effort. In the process, they found the last environmental assessment for the Barden Inlet channel was in 1975, which Mr. West said is “way out of date.”
“They (the ACE) are prepared to execute the environmental assessment,” Mr. West said. “I suspect that will take another 6 months; that must be completed before dredging can begin.”
