Posted on July 26, 2018
Boaters eager to reach a cluster of marinas off the Potomac River in Prince William County might not see a waterway leading to them reopened until at least this fall, according to local leaders.
But they say rapid progress has been made on a project to dredge silt from which the Neabsco Creek channel supports dozens of local jobs and businesses, so the U.S. Coast Guard can clear it again for navigation.
Early this year federal authorities put up “DANGER” signs at points of entrance, effectively but not legally closing the channel. At only a few feet, the depth poses a risk of boats getting grounded in the creek bottom.
The problem will require massive dredging of silt from the channel — a project estimated to cost more than $1 million paid by public funds, along with marina owners pitching in to dredge their own parts of the waterway. Concerns stemming from the Coast Guard’s decision not to post the usual navigation buoys in the channel earlier this year led to a concerted effort among government leaders, civic groups and business owners to tackle the problem.
Prince William County has already set aside $750,000 to help pay for the dredging, which is projected to bolster job creation along the creek as it reopens to public use next year.
The Virginia General Assembly, under pressure this year from local officials, also authorized a total of $2.6 million over the next two fiscal years on grants to the Virginia Port Authority for projects like Neabsco Creek. It’s expected that a local partnership spearheading the project will apply for a share of those funds, bringing the dredging closer to completion.
State Sen. Scott Surovell, D-36th District, said it was a team effort in the legislature to secure funding for the project. He worked with Delegates Luke Torian, D-52nd District, and Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-2nd District, to secure language in the state budget resulting in $250,000 of state funds to help pay for part of the project.
Also, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission agreed to waive about $500,000 of state remediation fees that would have been required for the project, Surovell said.
Along with the local and state sources, supporters of the Neabsco Creek dredging are asking for resources from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fund restoration of the public part of the waterway. And Virginia’s congressional representatives are involved in trying to secure federal funds.
Several community groups and leaders banded together to resolve the shallow-channel issue. They created a limited-liability corporation charged with managing the project with oversight from local civic and business groups.
Waterway Engineering out of Virginia Beach has been retained for the project surveys and management, and a request for bids is going out soon for quotes from companies that would actually dredge the channel and haul silt to the landfill.
While concerns remain about funding and how much the federal government ultimately chips in, Prince William Supervisor Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge, told InsideNoVa that the project will ultimately benefit the community, especially through commerce along the channel.
“This is very much a public/private partnership to expand the tax base … and reopen Neabsco Creek,” he said, also citing safety concerns. “Another reason why we need to dredge this creek is to improve the 911 response times to incidents on the river.”
He noted that the Coast Guard does not actually prohibit boaters from using the channel; some users of small craft are able to get through. But until the channel is dredged to at least 6 feet deep, the authorities will continue to advise about the depth, and local businesses will be harmed. “So it’s effectively closed. A lot of boat owners will not take the risk,” Principi said.
Under federal wildlife regulations, the work must be complete by February 2019, but Principi said it appears the project will be done well before then, especially once the dredging contractor is selected. “Once we get the equipment in there, it’s only going to take about six or eight weeks,” he said. “All indications are, we are ahead of schedule.”
Neabsco Creek Dredging Project LLC, the company formed by stakeholders, will carry out the project with oversight from invested local groups like the Woodbridge Potomac Communities Civic Association. Several marina owners also are involved in oversight of the public channel dredging, along with their own marinas.
“We are part of the project so that there are checks and balances from the community as well as the marina owners,” said Nader Abed, land use committee chair of the Woodbridge civic group, who added that the organization also wants input on how the public money is used from the outset. “We are there to make sure … that the funds are used properly and that we see where the funds are going. We put our input in as far as what’s needed.”
Some 40 area organizations are involved in the stakeholder group that formed the LLC.
While Abed noted that each marina owner is responsible for dredging of the private areas of the waterway, everyone involved is on board with the entire project, especially given conditions as they are. “It’s really dangerous for anybody to be there,” he said. “For the general public it needs to be done. It’s a pretty significant waterway.”
Principi said the Coast Guard made clear it was “dead serious” about not returning the navigational buoys until the channel reaches a safe depth in its estimation.
The county supervisor said he believes the project is on track to ensure the waterway is navigable before the federal conservation deadline next year. “Our intention is to dredge to 6 feet,” he said. “With regard to challenges, I think things moved very swiftly for the first 90 days of the project.
Source: Inside Nova
