Posted on August 10, 2021
Following a July 28 DNREC informational meeting, on the Zoom platform and attended by about 125 people, Michael Globetti, who handles public relations for DNREC, told Coastal Point officials hoped to complete the design and bidding process in time to have the work performed, subject to permit conditions. State funding will pay for the project, although the cost will not be known “until further along in the bid process,” he said.
“The project will be competitively bid, so until bids are received, and a contract is awarded, we will not know what contractor will perform the work,” he said.
Globetti said many of the questions asked during the session “had to do with specific details of the project, such as what impacts the proposed dredging may have on navigability, channel marking, biological resources and how the beneficial reuse of the dredged material to preserve adjacent wetlands will work. It’s likely that boaters who use White Creek and other adjacent waterways represented a significant number of the attendees.”
Among those participating was Tom Fowler of Bethany Beach, who owns a marina and runs two charter boats. He asked that 1,200 feet at the north end of the Assawoman Canal also be dredged, but was told that would be a separate project and additional funding would be needed, even though, Fowler said, “the criterial for dredging White Creek is being connected to other bodies of water, slips and marinas.”
“They are skipping a marina that sells fuel and is still available to the public at the northern end. I’m not saying dredge all the way to Assawoman Creek, but to not go 1,200 feet when you already have the dredge there? It’s not like you’re in the middle of the canal with trees and bridges where you couldn’t get a floating dredge in. But here they can get it in up to the first bridge, Central Avenue, which is the last dock. After that there are no more docks on the Assawoman Canal,” Fowler said.
“We can’t get in and out of the canal, hardly. This is the first summer I have had to cancel tours and reschedule and cancel because of the tide … at the meeting they pretty much flat out said, ‘It ain’t going to happen, Tom, because we’re going to do that as a separate project’ and I said ‘That doesn’t make sense. I am just asking for the northern end, not the whole canal,’” said Fowler, who uses a 26-foot center console, open boat for tours. The boat doesn’t have a deep draw.
“Sitting, she might draw 2 feet … In the Assawoman Canal the current runs fast. If you’re coming in against the current in a boat you’re going to squat. Your butt is going to drop down lower than normal,” he said.
Fowler said he will continue to talk to local and state officials in an effort to get that area dredged.
Before the July 28 meeting, DNREC issued a news release stating, “Since White Creek was last dredged in the early 2000s, shoaling has increasingly impacted navigation in the waterway that connects Indian River Bay to the Assawoman Canal, and ultimately Little Assawoman Bay. The project is currently in the design phase and an alternative analysis is also under way to identify suitable beneficial uses for dredged material generated by the project to restore and enhance coastal wetland areas close to the waterway.”
In May, Globetti, told Coastal Point DNREC was in the planning and design stage of a potential dredging project for White Creek but said it was too early to say when and at what cost.
Also at that time, Bethany Bay resident, and boater, Don Shope told Coastal Point he and fellow boaters wanted to “shed light on this situation because it’s dangerous.”
“Not only do the boaters need the channel markers but for property owners, to not have a channel in there that is deep enough, all of our property values will go down if this is not maintained and boaters can’t use it. There will be a significant uproar once people know about it,” Shope said.
“I’m pleased that citizens’ concerns have been heard in order to bring about this meeting. Concerned citizens need to continue to press officials to make this a priority. I hope that our need for urgent attention to this matter will accelerate this time table. We must increase public awareness and pressure and not be placated by well-intentioned meetings and discussions that result in no meaningful actions,” Shope said.
Local boaters have been urging boat slip owners, residents of White’s Creek Manor and other homeowners’ associations along White Creek to contact elected officials to get the directional markers in area waterways returned. They were removed and replaced with “Danger Shoal” signs.
“Not only do the boaters need the channel markers but for property owners, to not have a channel in there that is deep enough, all of our property values will go down if this is not maintained and boaters can’t use it. There will be a significant uproar once people know about it,” Shope said.
