Posted on December 15, 2021
Eastham’s Select Board voted 5-0 on Dec. 13 to withdraw from the Memorandum of Understanding with Orleans on the Nauset Estuary dredging project.
The boards met jointly at the Eastham Library Monday. Orleans had been footing the bills through the design, study and preliminary permitting phase, $670,000 thus far with no permits secured. But the actual dredging would cost about $3.1 million according to the Woods Hole Group’s 2020 estimate, split between the towns. Eastham’s board had reservation over the project’s economic value and environmental impact.
Objections over economic benefit
“My two major concerns are there is no economic cost analysis that says here are the economic benefits and we’re talking about a multi-million dollar project,” said Eastham Chair Arthur Autorino. “It’s hard to evaluate a project of this size without economic data. I’ve gotten a ton of letters from citizens about this project and they don’t want it.”
“I haven’t been a fan of this since it first emerged (as a citizens petition in Orleans in 2016),” Autorino’s fellow board member Aimee Eckmann said. “Is it worth digging up a pristine estuary if you don’t get an economic benefit? No doubt it’s difficult for lobstermen but it’s not impossible. They’re still out there. There were nine boats moored near the inlet.”
The inlet to Nauset Marsh has migrated north from Orleans into Eastham since the 1970s. What was once a straight shot into Nauset Harbor and back towards the Town Cove is now an “L” shaped inlet leading to a long canal running parallel to the backside of the barrier beach. That’s slowed the tidal flow, resulting in silting that renders the inlet inaccessible except at higher tides. As a result the Orleans fishing fleet has anchored out behind the barrier beach.
The proposed dredging would have removed 155,560 cubic yards of sand, some by mechanical dredging, but 119, 830 cubic yards behind the would-be side-cast to the beach and marsh.
Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly said his town wanted to inform the Eastham board that Orleans would be abandoning plans for hydraulic dredging near Priscilla Landing and Mill Pond due to objections from neighbors at Nauset Heights and switching to mechanical dredging. Orleans would need a new location for dewatering the spoils to kill red tide cysts – but the meeting never got to that stage.
Cost-benefit analysis
“This is a natural process out there. It is behaving exactly like it’s supposed to,” Eckman argued. “We need to come up with ways to live with it, not bend it our way. You’ve spent $670,000 on this We need to step back and see what is the justification for this?”
The towns share Nauset Marsh, with much of the dredging targeted for the backside of the barrier beach in Eastham and the National Seashore.
“there are just too many variables without a cost benefit analysis,” Eastham’s Al Cestaro agreed.
“This does not fit very many elements of our strategic plan,” Autorino added. “So as a board we are really not in favor of this project.”
Orleans had been nudging Eastham along since 2019 by picking up the tab for studies to answer environmental questions and permitting filings and they tried to mine that vein again.
“I view the permits as value whether or not we dredge,” Orleans Chair Meff Runyon said. “This is really Orleans expense. No participation is asked for from Eastham. So the preference from me is to try to complete the permits. The whole point in starting this was economics. Nauset Harbor has been an economic resource for 400 years.”
Eastham withdraws
The boards agreed that without Eastham’s support the permits could be difficult, and not just because one is from the Eastham Conservation Commission. Orleans Board member Mark Mathison wanted a more definitive decision.
“I’ll be blunt with you,” he said. “Section nine of the MOU (memorandum of understanding) says Eastham has the right to withdraw participation. If that is the intent there is no point in going down this road. If you want to continue to be a participant through permitting, so be it. It sounds like (withdrawal) is what you want to do. If that’s the case, say so and we’ll be on our way.”
Autorino asked his board if that was what they wanted.
“What would Eastham do if Orleans proceeded to file?” Orleans’ Kevin Galligan asked.
“I don’t think it would get far without Eastham on the permit,” Eckman said. “There would be a public outcry if Orleans tried to do a project in Eastham. I think it would be challenged.”
While Jared Collins said he was fine with continuing through permitting to answer environmental questions he eventually voted with his Eastham colleagues to withdraw from the MOU.
Next steps
Orleans has been working on the dredging plan since 2017 with the Woods Hole Group and there are at least eight state, Federal and local permits still required.
Portions of the planned project are entirely within Orleans, opening the channel to Priscilla Landing, Mill Pond and the Town Cove so the Orleans board will need to meet to decide whether to proceed further.
