Posted on March 10, 2020
WORCESTER CO., Md. – An important dredging project is happening off Maryland’s coast in order to help restore Ocean City’s beaches and the Assateague seashore.
The Army Corps of Engineers arrived at the Ocean City inlet last week to start the annual project. Officials say the replenishment for the National Park is needed because of the jetties that were built at the inlet after the hurricane in 1933. Those jetties have actually prevented the northern part of Assateague from naturally getting sediment. So while the end goal of the dredging is the same, the purpose for Assateague is slightly different compared to Ocean City’s.
“Our sediment restoration project is not designed to actually create a fixed beach. It’s not designed to create a fixed elevation. It’s really basically just designed to restore the sediment and to restore that natural erosion process that occurs all the way down Assateague,” says Bill Hulslander, the chief of Resource Management at Assateague National Seashore.
Park officials say the restoration helps the island work how it should: protecting park resources and mainland communities. The dredging, which typically happens twice a year, should be done around the end of March.
Source: Awmdt.com
