Posted on February 7, 2019
WELLFLEET — The town has decided to take its harbor dredging needs into its own hands after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year declined to provide hoped-for funds to do the work.
“We don’t want to wait for funding,” said Janet Reinhart, chairwoman of the Select Board. “We want to start looking at other possibilities.”
The Select Board has formalized a citizen working group into an official five-member dredging task force with two alternates. The board will ask the task force to pursue and oversee dredging of the federal channel, the harbor and inner harbor, and to develop and implement an ongoing maintenance dredging plan.
“We’ve just appointed our first person,” Select Board member Helen Miranda Wilson said Monday.
More people will be appointed soon, Reinhart said.
The dredging of harbors is of concern to many towns on Cape Cod. The Nauset Estuary, which is shared by Orleans, Eastham and the Cape Cod National Seashore, is under consideration for dredging because shoaling has created shallower waters that make it difficult for recreational and commercial boaters to reach the Atlantic Ocean.
In Wellfleet, natural shoaling in the 0.8-mile federal navigation channel and anchorage basin has reduced depths and created navigational hazards during lower tides. Once the federal area is dredged then two areas around the town pier will need dredging as well. In 2017, town officials estimated the entire job would cost $20 million, with possibilities for federal and state aid. At that time, the federal dredge was estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million. That’s still the estimate the town is working with, Reinhart said.
“It’s the largest ticket infrastructure item on the Lower Cape,” Select Board member Kathleen Bacon said. “We’re not taking this seriously, I don’t think.”
The harbor is used by commercial fishermen and charter boats and offers a marina and other facilities to accommodate tourists and recreational water users. The deep silt in and around the town pier prevents boaters from launching their craft at low tide, reduces the town’s marina revenue, reduces business for nearby restaurants and shops and encourages visitors and fishermen to use other harbors on Cape Cod Bay, according to harbor officials, charter boat captains, town officials, sailors and others. The silt — known as black mayonnaise — poses a threat to the town’s commercial shellfish industry, one of the top producers in the state.
Given a history of irregularly scheduled harbor dredges, the town has been behind this particular dredging project since at least 2015.
In that year, a federal survey showed the 10-foot-deep federal channel and federal anchorage to be “significantly shoaled.” In 2017, former board member Paul Pilcher told attendees at the annual State of Wellfleet Harbor Conference that “we’re at or near the top of the priority list for the federal channel.”
Last year, the town hired a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. to influence Congress and the Army Corps, paying less than $5,000, according to federal records that track lobbying activities.
In late November, the Army Corps released its national work plan for civil works in 2019. The largest individual projects in Massachusetts, in the range of $7 million to $8 million, were at the Cape Cod Canal and Boston Harbor.
But Wellfleet was not on the list.
On Nov. 26, lobbyist Ray Bucheger of FBB Federal Relations sent an email to Wellfleet Town Administrator Daniel Hoort with the bad news.
“You obviously had strong local support, a supportive Corps District, a supportive Congressional delegation, and you were consistent in your advocacy,” Bucheger wrote. “I admit that I am surprised by this result.”
Hoort said in late January that the town has not heard anything additional about why Wellfleet Harbor was not included in the 2019 Army Corps of Engineers work plan.
“They continue to be fairly tight-lipped about the process and how they determine who gets funding,” he said.
Army Corps personnel are using $150,000 to complete plans and specifications for the dredging project, spokesman Timothy Dugan said. A contract for the dredging will be sought once permitting is in place and construction funds have been identified, Dugan said.
The protection of a state-listed species is at issue for a water quality certification permit that has yet to be issued, according to state officials. The Army Corps submitted a permit application Dec. 19, 2017, and that is currently under review by the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to Dugan.
A state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman said the permit is largely ready to to be issued except for a review by the state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. A spokeswoman for the state endangered species program said the Army Corps is looking into the anticipated effects to the species, and that the state program is awaiting additional information from the Corps.
Hoort said the funding for the harbor project is not being held up by the permit, based on what the Army Corps told him.
Source: Cape Cod Times
