Posted on May 29, 2018
The boating communities of Ocean City and other coastal South Jersey towns have been remarkably patient about the deteriorating waterways they use.
Channels have become difficult to navigate without running aground. Many boaters have to time their trips to come and go during high tide because only then is there enough water to float their boats. The silt buildup near shore in places is so bad that people sometimes get stuck in muck chest deep and need rescuing.
These conditions that limit what local residents can do and discourage boating visitors have resulted from years of ordinary waterway and boat-slip dredging not getting done. And the main reason for that is the lack of state-approved, cost-effective places to put dredged muck.
Ocean City has been struggling to keep its waters functional for decades, sometimes at considerable expense. Back in the 1980s, for example, it asked the state for permission to put 100,000 cubic yards of dredged silt on an island in the back bay across the channel from the city’s airport. The state said the island had enough room for dredged material from its projects but not for the city’s.
A couple of years ago, the city spent $2.7 million to have dredged material hauled away by truck — just to do a 10th of the waterway work that needed to be done.
Now Ocean City has pledged $20 million through 2021 to clear out its clogged back bays. Much of that money will be spent just moving the material around — to a couple of temporary holding sites the state Department of Environmental Protection has allowed in the city, and then to a couple of permanent sites on the mainland of Cape May County.
The state is trying to find ways for waterway maintenance to become practical again. Last month the city and its dredging engineers announced the DEP had issued it a citywide dredge permit — the first for a N.J. municipality. A similar permit is expected from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and together they’ll ease the regulatory burden of dredge work.
The state is also again allowing winter dredging, adding another three months to the window for the work that opens July 1.
These accommodations are also good news for owners of marinas and private docks, who have to pay for their own dredging but can work under the city’s permit and use its disposal sites.
The one big piece of the dredging puzzle still missing is a better and closer option for the removed estuary muck. The state is working on a possible answer, conducting tests of whether diluted muck can be sprayed onto the vast marshes between the barrier islands and the mainland.
Early and limited tests have been promising, with the material letting marsh plants thrive and helping fill watery holes that develop as the wetlands sink due to vast geologic forces.
If the watered-down silt can help back-bay marshes survive this subsidence and a rising sea level, it would turn the challenging part of dredging from mere disposal into a beneficial use. An Army Corps official said restoring the marsh makes more sense than building little mountains with dredged materials.
The DEP and conservation organizations are expected to know the results of their pilot projects next year. If the result is good, it could launch a golden age for boating along the Jersey Shore.
Source: pressofatlanticcity
