Posted on September 2, 2024
FAIRFIELD — Sediment building up in Pine Creek has posed a barrier to saltwater from the Long Island Sound — and the boats that come with it — for decades, but Fairfield officials are hoping to acquire state permission to remove it.
Fairfield Engineering Manager Bill Hurley said the town is preparing to apply for state permits to dredge Pine Creek, a critical passage for water sustaining its marshlands and boats heading out to the sound for recreational use or emergency response. It would be the second time Fairfield dredges Pine Creek in roughly a decade, the last time after Hurricane Sandy deposited large amounts of sand from the beach into and in front of the creek.
Hurley said the Pine Creek Association raised concerns years ago about sand bars, shoals and shells “choking” the channel and threatening the creek’s basic function outside of high tide cycles.
Aleksandra Moch, a wetland expert consulting the Pine Creek Association, said the flow of salt water upstream gives life to the Pine Creek Marsh, which includes crabs, mussels and other fish and birds. Without the salt, the tidal grass depending on it would die, and reeds known as phragmites would grow in its place. In a series of chain reactions, the change in agriculture would kill off local wildlife, make the marsh more susceptible to wildfires and expose the soil to release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Moch said.
“Most likely the marshes are experiencing a decrease of the tidal flush; however, I don’t think we are there yet to really see this visually,” she said. “I think the consequences will keep growing slowly. And I’m really worried about this phragmites taking over the entire area because this will destroy the entire ecosystem.”
Moch said a future dredging project would handle unfinished business from the post-Sandy cleanup, which excavated sand near the creek’s mouth but left thousands of cubic yards of soil within the creek untouched — it lacked additional funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She said the dredging project could remove up to nearly 20,000 cubic yards of sand five feet deep, from the channel, the sand spit next to the creek’s mouth and a sand bar up the channel.
“It was just basically to open the mouth, which was like the low bandage for the injury,” Moch said. “It helped, but it helped just (a) little. So over time, obviously the problem is still there, and it needs to be addressed.”
Mike Ginley, the president of the Pine Creek Association, said a deeper creek will also deliver benefits to the roughly two miles of the private properties than line the body of water to its northern reaches. He said local residents use the creek to go fishing, swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding and boating, adding that the marsh has also been a source of bird watching and hiking.
“It’s just an amazing restoration project that the town did and just really one of the crown jewels of Fairfield,” he said.
Fairfield will need to take several steps before it moves forward with another Pine Creek dredging project. Aside from any permit applications, town officials need to figure out where they’re going to move the sand from the creek and how they’re going to finance the whole project, which Moch estimates to be worth over $1 million.
The beach house properties neighboring the creek on Fairfield Beach Road seem to be the leading candidate for the sand’s next destination. Ginley said the Pine Creek Association has been contacting homeowners there over the last three months and has so far received permission from 12 to receive sand on the beach behind their homes, and the group is looking for more. He said replenishing the beach would be especially critical as erosion eats at the coastline.
“It’s a continuous problem dealing with erosion, and we can be part of that solution,” Ginley said.
Hurley said the Pine Creek Association has reached property owners from 2100 to 2300 Fairfield Beach Road about the town’s interest in relocating the sand. He added that the town would otherwise need easements, which grant legal access, to dump the sand on the private property.
He said finding dumping grounds in a nearby municipalities could also be an option, though one with coordination of costs, work plans and schedules.
On the money side, Hurley said town officials and the Pine Creek Association are looking into grant opportunities, but state and federal grants would be difficult to obtain because the dredging would likely qualify as a maintenance project with private benefits. He said private funding is still possible, and town funding would need approval from the boards of selectmen and finance and the Representative Town Meeting.
Moch said state permitting could also boost the town’s chances with grant applications.
Fairfield was set to launch another dredging project this year in Southport Harbor, where crews will look to remove sand building up on the eastern shore at the harbor’s entrance. Town officials did not respond to a request for comment about its status.
