Posted on April 2, 2019
ORLEANS — Sifting through various iterations of possible dredging scenarios, the Orleans and Eastham selectmen on Monday circled back to the beginning, choosing a slight variation of the original concept; the plan on the table now is to clear the channel from the mouth of Nauset Harbor all the way back to the Town Cove, with a spur branch to Priscilla Landing in Orleans.
They’ll push for permitting from myriad local, state and federal regulators once funding is secured at the next town meetings. Based on a ranking of environmental issues, engineering, maintenance, benefits to boaters both recreational and commercial, permitting ease and data collection requirements this alternative is the best, according to Leslie Fields of the Woods Hole Group, the project consultant.
The joint meeting of the boards, at the Eastham library, also determined that the best location for depositing the spoils was likely north of the Nauset Beach parking lot. Any deposition would have to avoid overwash areas, since they are the preferred breeding habitat for endangered shorebirds (piping plovers, oyster catchers, least terns).
Fields, who spoke with regulators at a pre-application meeting, said permitting would require shellfish surveys, protecting overwash areas near the old mouth of the harbor to satisfy the state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, a habitat assessment for fish and benthic life, a post construction monitoring plan and more hydrodynamic modeling. The WHG will do a red tide cyst survival study next year.
“There was also concern with the frequency and cost of maintenance (of the channel) behind the barrier beach,” Fields said. “The shoaling in the estuary doesn’t justify emergency permits.”
Emergency action had been urged by local fishermen, who have difficulty transiting between the inlet and the landings.
“After the meeting I felt encouraged,” she said. “We introduced the project to the regulatory agencies and now they’ve heard about it.”
Other alternative dredging routes were either too difficult to permit or didn’t meet the requirements of fishermen or boaters. The second best alternative was to drop the Priscilla Landing spur and just dredge back to Town Cove.
There was a question about spreading the dredge spoils (close to 140,000 cubic yards) to Nauset spit or on Nauset Beach as well, so towns would have more options but Fields noted separate permitting would be required for each location.
Orleans Selectman Mark Mathison said that amount of usable spoils could be an asset to the towns, and Aimee Eckman of Eastjham wondered if it could be utilized to shore up bayside beaches.
“So long as the sediment is compatible in grain size there’s no problem,” Fields said.
Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly pointed out the north of Nauset location provided easier access for any future reuse of the sand.
“We need to go forward with this and get it done,” Mathison said. “We’re making it overly complex with what to do with the sand. That’s secondary to the issue. We need to get the channel dredged.”
Wallace Adams, chairman of the Eastham board, said that the first alternative (back to Priscilla Landing and Town Cove) was most likely to satisfy both the fishermen and the public and Fields noted it could be done in phases if needed, with a permit for all of it.
Eastham is waiting for results of a study by the Center for Coastal Studies that will assess any potential damage to the barrier beach from the dredging behind it. The new plan shifts the dredging closer to the marsh side of the channel, away from the back of the beach.
“Without that it’s hard to commit,” Eckman noted.
They expect the report early next month so they can prepare a town meeting article authorizing funding for the next steps in permitting.
“It’s silly to go forward with permitting if we don’t anticipate doing the project,” Eastham Selectman Martin McDonald said.
“We have to do something at this point. We can’t let this go on,” Adams said.
Fields noted they could drop the Priscilla Landing portion if permitting was too difficult.
Source: eastham.wickedlocal.com
