Posted on June 8, 2017
By Josh Bollinger, The Star
When it comes to Knapps Narrows, the name says it all.
The narrowing of the Knapps Narrows channel has been a concern of local Tilghman Island residents and business owners, especially in a community that relies on a maritime economy. The channel connects the Choptank River to the mid-Bay.
Silting there has drastically reduced water depths since the last time it was dredged in 2006, from an authorized depth of 9 feet to a shoaled depth around 1.5 to 2.5 feet in some places, and it’s causing issues not just with maritime-related businesses and commercial watermen, but also with recreational boaters.
More than $2 million is included in the federal fiscal year 2018 budget for the dredging of Knapps Narrows, a key channel for the maritime economy of Tilghman Island. But with boating season currently upon the Chesapeake Bay and a federal government that’s still in the early stages of working through the budget, the shoaled depths at Knapps Narrows might continue to be bad for business should work not start soon.
More than $1 million in funding was awarded to dredge the channel a few years ago, but the county simultaneously had to prepare a site to place the spoils, so there’s somewhere for the sediment after it’s cleared from the channel, Talbot County Engineer Ray Clarke said.
Bids to construct the spoils site were higher than expected, which meant dredging could not move forward. Clarke said the county had the spoils site ready for construction last summer, but then a few delays came on the side of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the spoils site is currently under construction.
Meanwhile, the silting at Knapps Narrows gets worse.
“We keep being told that dredging will occur if funds are available,” Clarke said. “Right now, we all kind of got our fingers crossed that funds will be available.”
Dredging Knapps Narrows is a priority in a draft master plan for Tilghman Island.
The impacts of a shallow Knapps Narrows are particularly troubling during low tide, said Pat Shugars, general manager of Knapps Narrows Marina and Inn.
Boaters with deeper drafts don’t enter the Narrows, and those who lease boats are told by companies not to enter the channel, in fear the boats will run aground, Shugars said.
“Recreation traffic through here has come down quite a bit,” he said.
The marina and inn, located directly on Knapps Narrows, has to turn boaters away from its floating dock. Shugars said they have a permit to dredge the floating dock alongside official dredging of the channel, but shoaling has gotten so bad on the inside of the floating dock, they have to turn away about 20 percent of customers who want to dock there.
“We’re basically losing half of our floating dock,” Shugars said.
The issue has the bipartisan attention of representatives in Congress, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st, who have both sent letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, calling for the dredging to happen as soon as possible.
“This navigation project is extremely important to Maryland’s economy,” Van Hollen wrote in a letter dated Monday, June 5, to an Army Corps official. “The silting is causing significant safety concerns for commercial watermen and pleasure boaters. The shoaling is jeopardizing commercial activity and threatening the local economy.”
Source: The Star
