Posted on February 10, 2022
Federal infrastructure funding will help dredge a channel in Murrells Inlet and fortify areas along the Intracoastal Waterway making both more navigable for fishing and recreational boats.
The funding, announced Thursday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday, is part of President Joe Biden’s signature policy victory to date — his bipartisan infrastructure package.
In Murrells Inlet, $6.1 million will go toward dredging the federal channel, which commercial fishing boats and other large vessels use, giving them easier passage, according to a news release. The Corps of Engineers will place the dredged material on the southern tip of Garden City Beach, where the agency said it will aid with stormwater drainage.
“Completion of this project is win-win for the community, providing for safe navigation at Murrells Inlet while also providing for storm damage risk reduction benefits from the placement of beach quality dredged material at Garden City Beach,” the agency said in the release.
Jeff Livasy, the head of programs and civil works projects in the Corps of Engineers Charleston office, said the channel is currently “impaired.” He noted that being able to use the material dredged from the channel for stormwater mitigation is a “win-win.”
“This will completely be put to use by placing that material on beach, providing some level of storm mitigation,” he said. “
Another $12.6 million will go toward fortifying parts of the Intracoastal Waterway between Charleston and the Winyah Bay, where Horry County’s swamps, streams and rivers drain into the ocean.
When the Waterway was first dug, the federal government preserved areas along its banks to dump the dirt and other materials. Those areas were preserved after the waterway was navigable as “spoil easements” where the county or Corps of Engineers could dump dredged material.
In the past, that looked like a backhoe on a barge, floating down the river. The backhoe would dump dirt and other dredged material in the spoil easement zones as the barge floated down the waterway.
By the 1950s and 1960s, dredging techniques began to change, and large spoil easement properties were no longer needed. Rather than a backhoe on a barge, large hoses could be used to pump dredged material to a designated area, similar to how beach renourishment is done.
In place of the old spoil easement zones, the county dedicated smaller areas along the Intracoastal Waterway where dredged material could be pumped. The county’s bike park, The Hulk, was formerly one such area. Horry County also has a process in place for removing the old spoil easements and allowing landowners to develop their property along the waterway.
With the infrastructure funding, the Corps of Engineers will work to fortify those new dredged-materials areas, which are considered to be more environmentally friendly compared to the spoil easement areas. The funds will allow the Corps of Engineers to build taller walls around the areas and the agency to “investigate opportunities to increase their capacity.”
To do so, the Corps will dig a ditch in the area, allow excess water to drain into the waterway, and then build dikes on the walls to prevent them from collapsing. That will create more area for the Corps to place dredged material from future projects.
