OC fishermen tired of studies, want action on sand
You have to plow through the sand to get out of the commercial harbor in West Ocean City, fishermen say.
The sand is like a hill in the harbor, and while Stormy Harrington hasn't run into any major issues with his boat yet, he says the amount of sand piling up in the area is a problem.
"When you can't get out you can't get out," Harrington says.
And there are other problem areas for boats trying to traverse from the harbor to the open ocean. Sand travels, but lately it has been traveling faster than ever and clogging those channels every few months in certain conditions, according to Bob Blama of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While before he would need to do maintenance dredging every year or two, now he gets calls a few months after the Corps has dredged the area.
While in the past dredging once every few years was sufficient, the need for maintenance dredging has increased, and no one knows why. The Army Corps of Engineers is currently completing a Federal Interest Determination Report, and when that is done if there is sufficient interest, the Corps will move forward with a detailed feasibility study for the area, according to Tony Clark, Continuing Authorities program manager.
That would mean "looking at the regional sediment management and how the dynamics of that sediment is moving around the harbor and inlet channels," Clark says. It would also mean looking at beneficial uses for the dredge material to counteract erosion, or to reduce the damage caused by storms.
The Corps is currently looking at existing data, but they don't know for sure what is causing the accelerated problem.
"Every time something is done in that area, it usually causes some sort of reaction somewhere else," Clark says.
There are theories, of course. Some fishermen blame riprap placed along the pilings of the Route 50 Bridge, while others blame beach replenishment efforts as far away as Delaware, or the removal of the railroad bridge that was swallowed by the water. Harrington says a lack of bulkhead at the mouth of the harbor, where a deteriorating dock is, could be to blame.
The discussion of these issues has brought another topic more than a decade old back to the table: dredging the harbor and Inlet channels to 16 feet, instead of the current limit of 10.
A study was completed in 1998 looking at various options for deepening the harbor, and the Corps began working on design and implementation. Funding ran out for the project about six years later, according to Clark.
The most important step now in bringing that idea back is getting a nonfederal sponsor for the project, such as the Town of Ocean City, the county or the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The nonfederal sponsor would also split 35 percent of the bill.
"We need people to be supportive," Clark says.
While dredging could potentially allow boats to load heavier, and relieve some issues for bigger boats, it's just a bigger bandage, Blama says. It would give the Corps more time between dredging, but the source of the problem still needs to be determined.
"The question is, where's the sand, how's it moving? I don't know that answer," Blama says.
At the harbor two boats down from Harrington's, the Tiki XIV, his brother Kerry has similar concerns. Especially for the impact the sand is having on commerce in the area: Clam and scallop boats have left the harbor and brought the money they spend on ice, gasoline, food and other supplies with them.
It is a two-hour trek from Ocean City to the Delmarva scalloping area in the Atlantic, but according to Kerry, boats have left and gone to other places 10, 12 hours away just to avoid the harbor. He would like to see a permanent pump station go in, similar to one in Palm Beach, Florida, to allow sand to be continuously removed from the area.
"Every Nor'Easter is going to bring sand to us again," Kerry Harrington says. "They've been doing studies since 1998. It's time to get something else going on."
rpacella@dmg.gannett.com
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