Posted on December 18, 2018
In the wake of a recent push for the dredging of Hampton Harbor, four Seacoast state representatives are filing a bill to create a fund to cover costs of future dredging projects.
The bill is being put forth by Republican Seabrook state Reps. Aboul Khan, Max Abramson, Jason Janvrin and Bill Fowler. Its language has not been finalized, but Khan said the intent is to help New Hampshire more efficiently fund dredging projects as they are needed rather than waiting for competitive federal dollars. He and other Seacoast officials have been calling for the harbor in Hampton to be dredged for the last few years. Officials are concerned shoaling is increasingly making it unusable.
“If (the dredging) does not happen, our lifeline of our businesses is totally doomed,” said Khan.
He added the source of the money for the fund is not determined but believes it could be jointly sourced from the federal and state governments.
The harbor in Hampton was last dredged in 2013, but boat captains say shoaling has since caused sand to pile up so that boats become stuck during high tide at an increasingly frequent rate. Some captains say the harbor’s dredging has been put off long enough that it could become unusable before the work begins next fall.
Harbors like in Hampton are dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency that relies on Congress to approve funding for which communities across the country are also competing.
Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan last week met with fishermen, harbor business owners and local and state officials at Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative, which sits on the Seabrook side of the harbor. They have successfully advocated for $4.6 million to be placed in the Army Corps of Engineers’ 2019 work plan, approved last month, and said Dec. 7 they plan to make sure the project’s final hurdles are overcome.
Khan and other local and state officials have praised New Hampshire’s congressional delegates for their advocacy on getting Hampton Harbor dredged. Still, officials say waiting for federal dollars can be frustrating.
Geno Marconi, director of New Hampshire Ports and Harbors, said the Piscataqua River’s upper most turning basin needs to be expanded by 400 feet to make room for large ships just barely making it through. He said 754-foot-long ships are currently turning through a basin that is just 800 feet wide.
Marconi said that expansion project was identified in a study published by the Army Corps in 1987 as one of five that needed to be completed, but it received the lowest priority of the projects on that list. The fourth priority project was the replacement of the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, which wrapped up this year. The replacement project followed the replacement of the Memorial Bridge just down river a few years earlier.
“It’s been hanging around for a long time,” Marconi said of the dredging project. “Things should be moving faster.”
Marconi said future work will also need to be done at Rye Harbor.
Around 700 boat captains, fishermen and other residents signed a petition this past September calling for the dredging of Rye Harbor. The petition was presented to the offices of Sens. Shaheen and Hassan.
Rye Harbor was last dredged around 1990, and, like those who use Hampton Harbor, users say the harbor is filling in with sediment, presenting a safety risk for mariners and a threat to economic activities.
While Marconi said it is difficult to comment on a bill that is yet to have its final language written, he added, “It’s always a good idea to prepare for these things.”
Source: fosters.com
