Posted on July 20, 2026
Mounds of dredge material left without warning in disposal areas in Pamlico Sound dominated heated discussion at the Dare County Waterways Commission meeting in Manteo on Monday, with members demanding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers address how it happened.
Following up on reports raised in June at the last commission meeting that some boats had been running aground in sound depths assumed to be the usual 12 feet, Chair Steve “Creature” Coulter didn’t waste any time asking the Corps’ Ryan McCadden, who was attending the July 13 meeting remotely, what the agency is going to do “to make sure that never happens again.”
“There was definitely something on our end we could do a better job,” McCadden responded, agreeing that the Corps also doesn’t want to repeat the situation.
Coulter wasn’t reassured: “Everyone sitting in this room realizes (the contractor) took 6 feet of water and made it 12 feet, and put 4 feet of lumps in the channel,” he said, referring to the pipeline project that was recently completed by Cottrell Contracting in the Hatteras Ferry Channel.
The contractor had deposited material dredged from Rollinson Channel into an open-water placement area in Pamlico Sound north of Rollinson, and material dredged from Sloop Channel went to another placement area to the northwest in the sound. When the contractor disposed of the material, the end of the pipeline was placed in the area and pumped, which created several different mounds as shallow as 3 feet about 1,500 feet north of the federal channel. That created a big hazard for mariners — who initially had no warning about the mounds — especially for those vessels going from Hatteras to Wanchese, Engelhard and Oregon Inlet.
McCadden told the commission that the lesson learned appeared to be “to try to restrict depth to 12 feet,” although he added that he wasn’t making any excuses.
After one or two vessels had grounded shortly after the disposal was done, the problem was brought to the Corps’ attention, a survey was conducted, and the contractor was instructed to get the depths down to a minimum of 5 feet, as required in the contract.
But some members also questioned the reasoning behind that depth, especially since ferries and charter vessels typically need a minimum of about 6 feet of water.
“Never did it come up that you were going to leave the depth at 5 feet,” Commissioner K.P. Scott told Corps project manager Tim Quinlan, who also joined the meeting remotely.
Coulter compared the situation to shoveling snow from your driveway into the road. “If we put all this snow on the main highway, does that help you get out of your driveway?” he asked.
As Commissioner Ernie Foster pointed out, that area of Pamlico Sound has been 12 feet or more for generations, and no boater would be expecting to suddenly encounter “a dangerous shoal.”
“It defies any sense of logic that that was allowed to take place,” he said, adding: “We now have a 12-foot channel leading to a 5-foot shoal.”
Foster also said that while the Corps representatives had expressed their regrets, they offered no remedy for boaters now having to avoid piles of sand in the sound where they weren’t before.
“What I’m hearing is… ‘Tough luck, you guys. You’re stuck with it,’” he said.
Quinlan asked the commission to address its questions and concerns about navigation and maintenance issues related to the pipeline project and the dredge material disposal in an email to the Corps, which the commission voted unanimously to do.
In a later interview, commission administrator Barton Grover said that it likely will be decided in the coming days whether the letter to the Corps will be generated by the commission or by the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
Grover also said that the Coast Guard had been notified about the mounds and has been issuing notices to mariners.
