Posted on August 26, 2020
WESTERLY — About 70,800 cubic yards of sand will be dredged and removed from Winnapaug Pond as part of an eelgrass restoration project that remains on schedule to start this fall and winter.
During an internet overview meeting Wednesday, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided the most up to date information on the $2.7 million project that is being paid for with $2.4 million in federal funds and $300,000 in town funding.
Todd Randall, a marine ecologist with the Corps, explained that dredging area locations had to be moved after some of the areas originally envisioned for dredging were determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be intertidal zones that must be avoided to keep from disturbing Piping Plovers and Red Knots, both endangered bird species.
Surveys of the restoration areas that will be dredged revealed 3-4 feet of fine sand that will be removed. About 58,300 cubic yards of sand from the dredge will be placed on Misquamicut State Beach, 7,000 cubic yards on the Town Beach and 5,300 cubic yards on Wuskeneau Beach.
Two sedimentation basins — one 9-feet deep and one 5-feet deep — will be created as part of the project. Creation of the basins, which will have to be emptied periodically, is a technique to prevent future shoaling.
Starting in the spring of 2021 and continuing the following spring, test eelgrass plots will be established. Eelgrass from the test plots will be be transplanted and planted in other parts of the pond in the spring, summer, and fall of 2022
Some residents asked whether a sandbar that has developed adjacent to the northern end of the “island” located inland of the breachway bridge would be removed. The sandbar is said to impede tidal flow and boaters. Kristine Reed, ecosystem restoration program manager with the Army Corps, said the Corps had received several e-mail messages on the topic of the sandbar. Unfortunately, Reed said, the sandbar cannot be removed because the project authorized for funding by the U.S. Congress is for eelgrass restoration not navigation.
While private property owners could conceivably pay to have the sandbar dredged, Reed said, additional permits would be required. Randall said it would take at least one year to redesign the project to include the sandbar. Similar concerns will prevent use of dredge material for salt marsh restoration, Randall said.
The dredge was recommended as part of a larger project for the state’s southern coast that was set out in an environmental assessment completed by the Corps in 2002. Eeelgrass restoration and dredge projects at Ninigret Pond and Quonochontaug Pond, both part of the larger, regional project have been completed.
Source: thewesterlysun
