Posted on September 3, 2025
Plans to dredge 6,000 cubic yards of sand from Mattituck Inlet this fall have been postponed to October 2026 by the Army Corps of Engineers, Army Corps spokesperson James D’Ambrosio said.
The inlet, located on Long Island Sound, serves as a harbor of refuge during severe storms and supports recreational boating, including commercial marinas like Strong’s Marina. The navigation channel was originally constructed by the Army Corps in 1914, with the east jetty completed in 1908 and the west jetty completed in 1938.
The maintenance dredge was postponed “due to shipyard maintenance delays and unforeseen engine problems with the corps’ Multipurpose Vessel Brandy Station,” Mr. D’Ambrosio told The Suffolk Times. The Army Corps intends to complete the work in full compliance of all federal and state environmental resource agencies in fall 2026.
Mattituck Park District chairman Kevin Byrne said the dredge is a necessity, not only for the inlet’s navigability but also to prevent risk of breach at Bailie Beach, which he noted is at “serious risk” if a nor’easter were to hit the East End.
“The sand has reached the outer edge of the west side of the jetty, and the jetty is no longer functional at preventing sand from coming into the inlet,” Mr. Byrne said.
According to Mr. D’Ambrosio, there is currently 6,500 cubic yards of material inhibiting navigation within the authorized federal navigation channel. Federal regulations mandate that the waterway have a depth of at least seven feet at low tide. As part of a $3 million Army Corps dredging project, Mattituck Harbor had 9,985 cubic yards of sediment dredged in 2024.
Sand build up is visible on both sides of the inlet’s mouth, and Mr. Byrne said the seven-foot depth requirement for navigability is not met in several parts of the inlet. There are also areas in the inlet that have extreme curves where a wider depth is needed for safe travel, he added.
“It’s frankly not our problem. The only reason we’re involved is our beaches are being jeopardized,” Mr. Byrne said of the park district’s involvement in the inlet’s dredging. “It creates dangerous tides and currents because of the way the sand now covers all the way to the edge of the jetty. People think that’s the beach. People go swimming there, and they’re at dangerous risk of being swept out to sea.”
Sand build up inside the inlet has created a separate “pseudo beach” which Mr. Byrne said people have used as a swimming hole recently. That poses its own risks, as times of tidal swing create dangerous currents inside the inlet for swimmers.
Issues don’t stop there, as Mr. Byrne said property owners on the jetty’s eastern side have experienced property erosion due to lack of beach replenishment.
The last time such a large amount of sand was dredged from the inlet was 2014, when the Army Corps of Engineers dredged nearly 100,000 cubic yards of sediment from the inlet which replenished Bailie Beach. That $2.2 million project deepened the inlet to 15 feet below the mean low tide to improve navigability after 15 years of negotiations.
The park district-commissioned a 3D imaging of the inlet in 2024 to evaluate the sand buildup below the surface. The pictures showed a “dramatic difference” between 2024 and 2025, Mr. Byrne said.
A 2006 report prepared by the Army Corps of Engineers that evaluated shore erosion in Mattituck Inlet found that the federal navigation project was responsible for 41% of shoreline recession for the 4,000 feet of shoreline directly down-drift of Mattituck Inlet. For the areas located 4,000 to 9,600 feet east of the inlet, federal responsibility for shoreline recession decreased to 23%.
A change.org petition to protect the inlet and restore Bailie Beach started by the park district has received more than 370 signatures as of Aug. 26. It urges Congressman Nick LaLota, his congressional peers and the Army Corps of Engineers to fund and perform a 100,000 cubic yard dredge of the inlet.
Mr. LaLota, in a statement emailed to The Suffolk Times, wrote that his team has been working with Town Supervisor Al Krupski and the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure funding is in place for the upcoming, smaller-scale, routine maintenance dredge.
“It’s important to note that while I’m a strong advocate, the decision ultimately rests with USACE, which makes dredging determinations in coordination with local stakeholders, also considering regional and national priorities,” Mr. LaLota wrote. “Thankfully, routine maintenance is already scheduled. For anything beyond that, like addressing long-term erosion at Bailie Beach, which is not federally maintained, a local, non-federal sponsor would need to request a new Section 111 study to evaluate possible solutions.”
The petition argues that the planned maintenance dredge “will not meaningfully renourish Bailie Beach and will not address the ongoing damage caused by the jetty.
“The erosion caused by the jetty has become so extreme [that] a catastrophic breach of the Inlet is possible; endangered species habitat has been destroyed and will soon be completely eliminated; Bailie Beach is nearly gone and adjacent property owners are impacted,” the petition states. “A catastrophic breach could have irreversible consequences not just for the inlet itself, but for the wider Mattituck area’s economy, property owners and natural resources. Unless Bailie Beach is renourished soon, a breach is inevitable.”
