For the second time in two years, the Menemsha Channel dredge project has come to a grinding halt in midstream. The Army Corps of Engineers shut down the $2.2 million project on Jan. 31 to comply with the conditions of a permit issued by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries (DMF). The DMF stipulated that work had to stop on that date to allow for the winter flounder migration.
An Army Corps progress survey on Jan. 10 showed that dredge contractor JWay Southern had removed approximately 4,000 cubic yards of dredge material since restarting operations this past December. When the project was first halted, on Jan. 31, 2016, approximately 15,000 cubic yards had been dredged, according to the Army Corps estimates.
In total, after two years of dredging, roughly 19,000 cubic yards of the contracted 41,000 cubic yards has been dredged from the channel.
Bret Stearns, director of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) natural resources department, and Island point man for the project, told The Times on Tuesday that sand will likely accrete in the channel during the projected nine-month delay.
“The Army Corps will have to resurvey when they resume dredging later this year to determine the new amount that will need to be dredged. That number might go up significantly,” he said.
According to Army Corps spokesman Timothy Dugan, a post-dredge survey will be done in the coming weeks to determine the total amount of sand that has been dredged thus far.
Mr. Stearns said that dredging operations did not meet the deadline this time around because of a series of mechanical failures.
Last year, JWay owner Al Johnson said operations were delayed by severe weather, mechanical failures, and a dredging moratorium during the Derby.
Mr. Stearns said that like last year, the dredging didn’t get to the most critical areas, inside the red nun, inside the pond.
“This year, there is another hump adjacent to Picnic Point,” he said. “There isn’t a thruway channel from where they ended last year. There’s been accretion at that location as well. I’m hopeful that between [the tribe] and the towns [Aquinnah and Chilmark], that there will be navigation aids where necessary this coming spring.”
In addition to dredging the channel, the project is intended to fortify Lobsterville Beach. Mr. Stearns said the most immediate need is for a bulldozer to solidify the sand that has been pumped to Lobsterville so it doesn’t blow away during the winter. “That’s something that has to be worked out with the Army Corps,” he said.
According to the contract, the “right of entry” given to the Army Corps and JWay Southern by the Wampanoag Tribe and the town of Aquinnah began on Sept. 15, 2016, and will expire on Feb. 15, 2017. This may require JWay pipeline and heavy machinery, which were left behind last year, taking up prized parking spots along Lobsterville Road and in West Basin, and leaving more than one fisherman fuming, to be relocated elsewhere.
In a previous interview with The Times, Mr. Johnson estimated that two miles of pipeline were installed to pump the dredge spoils from the Menemsha Channel to Lobsterville Beach.
There are other issues to be addressed before dredging resumes for a third time. Mr. Stearns said that damage resulting from dredge operations on tribe and Aquinnah town land will have to be repaired. A list is currently being compiled. One example is beach erosion at the end of West Basin Road that was created when a large pump that propelled the channel dredge spoils to Lobsterville Beach leaked, and over time eroded the bank.
When the project is complete, the dredging will clear a swath in Menemsha Channel eight feet deep at low mean tide and 80 feet wide, from the jetties at Menemsha Harbor entrance, past West Basin and the red nun, past Long Point, known locally as Picnic Point, into Menemsha Pond.
The stalled dredging is long overdue. The Army Corps determined the channel is a navigational hazard — parts of the channel shoaled to less than three feet. In 1945, the federal government designated Menemsha Pond a “harbor of refuge,” meaning that boats must be able to seek shelter there in the event of a major storm.
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