Posted on July 17, 2017
By Jordan Bailey, VillageSoup
The Maine Department of Transportation has identified an inland site to deposit material from the planned maintenance dredging of Searsport Harbor by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Army Corps spokesman Timothy Dugan said the dredging will remove about 40,000 cubic yards of material to maintain the channel depth of 35 feet below “mean lower low water.”
“This is the average of the lower low water height of each tidal day observed over the National Tidal Datum Epoch,” Dugan explained.
Two feet of overdredge is allowed, he said, which could bring the channel depth to 37 feet.
The Army Corps will be sampling and testing the mud at the dredging site this summer and results of those tests will be available in the fall, he said. The sample cores will be taken to a depth of between 35 and 37 feet below the mean lower low water level. Once the results are obtained, an environmental assessment will be completed to determine if the materials are suitable for disposal at the DOT’s identified site.
The DOT did not respond to questions about the location of the proposed deposit site.
Because the president’s proposed federal budget does not include funding for the project, Dugan said, it is uncertain when dredging will begin.
Source: VillageSoup
