Posted on February 4, 2019
NEWBURYPORT — After completing a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Mayor Donna Holaday said she feels officials are on the right track toward securing a project to provide much-needed nourishment for Plum Island’s dunes.
Holaday was joined by Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and members of the Plum Island Foundation on the trip, which included a day’s worth of high-level meetings with the Massachusetts congressional delegation and representatives from the Army Corp of Engineers at which Plum Island’s eroding coastlines were discussed.
Storms in recent years have created a flatter landscape on Plum Island. Last winter, a string of nor’easters caused the Reservation Terrace neighborhood to be hit with serious flooding and washover that eroded dunes and came dangerously close to homes.
Several hundred feet of sand has eroded from the neighborhood’s coastline over the past decade, and the Army Corps has proposed a project that would take thousands of cubic yards of sand dredged from the Merrimack River and use it to build up the island’s dunes.
While in Washington, Holaday, Tarr and the Plum Island Foundation met with aides from Sen. Edward Markey’s office, who said they would contact the Army Corps’ New England District to talk with them about Plum Island, according to Holaday.
She also said Markey’s office offered to host a meeting of the New England District, members of the Massachusetts delegation and local elected officials to discuss the use of dredged Merrimack sand for dune replacement.
“Overall, it was a very positive day,” Holaday said, adding that it has been nine years since the river was dredged.
“This is one of the most dangerous rivers in the country,” she said.
The group also met with Congressman Seth Moulton, D-Salem, who Holaday said gave his full support, and with representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, who gave the group pointers for moving forward with possible programs.
Holaday said the group also met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office, and although the senator was not there, her chief of staff, Bruno Freitas, was receptive and “ready to point us in any direction.”
As far as the next steps go, Holaday said she hopes to set up a meeting with Markey, Moulton and Warren to discuss the need for a dredging project.
She also said officials are beginning to consider options for funding annual sand replacement on Plum Island, which she said would replenish the dunes every autumn.
“At this point, we’re starting to look at how we can start some initial funding to have sand replacement every year,” Holaday said. “The bottom line is that Plum Island is a barrier island, it protects the Great Marsh and our city, so we have to take care of it.”
Source: The Daily News of Newburyport
