Posted on September 27, 2024
Following a meeting Wednesday between Dare County leaders and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss repeated violations of federal permits, the Miss Katie dredge will soon be allowed to resume its work in Oregon and Hatteras inlets and other waterways.
“We are committed to ensuring that our contractor’s dredging efforts are in compliance with the county’s permits,” said County Manager Bobby Outten. “We very much appreciate the efforts of the Corps of Engineers to resolve this issue.”
The Corps’ Wilmington District suspended Dare County’s five permits last week for what the military said were repeated violations by the dredge operated as a public-private partnership.
That stopped all work conducted by EJE Dredging Service, which owns and operates the $15 million Miss Katie dredge that is funded by the state and county.
The Corps said notices were issued in April and August of 2023 for violations related to work in what is formally known as the Manteo/Shallowbag Bay federal channel, which includes multiple channels through Roanoke Sound, in and around Wanchese, Oregon Inlet, out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Data from the National Dredging Quality Management Program between September 2023 and June 2024 shows “work was unnecessarily conducted by dredging well outside the authorized widths and depths of the navigation channels,” the Army Corps said.
That data come from sensors mounted on board the Miss Katie, which is a 156-foot shallow-draft hopper dredge.
It pulls sand through a pair of suction booms, places it in the hold known as a “hopper”, then steams to another location, opens up the bottom doors and dumps the spoils.
The News and Observer reported data shows the Miss Katie dredged as much as 445 feet outside the authorized area, or “box”, while still dumping the spoils in areas that are authorized under the permit.
The N&O also reported the violations in 2023 were related to dredging outside the box and also deeper than permitted, and that EJE Dredging was not conducting surveys of the channels as required by the permit.
Last week, the Corps said, “the suspension is necessary due to the continued disregard of permit conditions and failure of implementing any corrective actions.”
The Corps noted that 98% of all dredging done in the Manteo/Shallowbag Bay area were not in compliance with the permit.
Dare County Commissioner Steve House, who serves as Chairman of the Oregon Inlet Task Force, Dare County Manager Bobby Outten, and the county’s consulting engineers met with representatives from the Corps in Wilmington on Wednesday.
Conspicuously absent from that meeting was representatives of EJE Dredging.
Based in Greenville, the company had no prior experience in the dredging industry when it was awarded the contract for the Miss Katie in 2018.
The company’s current Chief Executive Officer is Jordan Hennessy, who at the time was legislative assistant for former state Sen. Bill Cook (R-Beaufort), and is among those credited with securing funding from the General Assembly for the dredge.
The dredge was built by EJE Dredging using a forgivable loan, charging the state and county a reduced rate for work until the $15 million is paid off.
The dredge was completed at a Louisiana shipyard, and began working in the waters off Dare County in 2022.
Hennessy has come under recent scrutiny for ventures involving dealings with Dare County on proposed housing developments on Roanoke Island and in Kitty Hawk that stalled, and a state domestic violence program that is the subject of a grand jury inquiry according to The N&O.
He currently serves as a member of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission, after being appointed last year by Republican state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.
According to a Dare County press release, the Corps has “assured county officials that dredging by the contractor can resume in the coming days, once the USACE updates the permits to reflect today’s discussions.”
Also agreed to at Wednesday’s meeting was the Corps providing data that was previously not available to the county or the contractor “so that all parties are working from and can reference the same information”, the county said.
Clarification of “ambiguities” in the permits will also be provided by the Corps, while Dare County staff and engineering consultants will review the newly available dredging data to ensure compliance by EJE Dredging.
“Now that we will all have access to and can work from the same data, this will help ensure the contractor follows all permitting terms,” Outten said.
