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« Rhode Island makes 'Fatal Fifteen' for third year | Today | Update: Judge won't waive Derderians' $1 million fine » November 30, 2006Ceremony marks Galilee dredging project / Photo
NARRAGANSETT -- The Harbor of Refuge in Point Judith is home to one of the nation’s most productive fishing fleets, the Block Island ferry, and serves as hallowed grounds to legions of recreational boaters and fishermen. Today, as trawlers passed and a seal bobbed in the water nearby, state, local and federal officials marked the start of work to dredge sand and silt from the port’s channels. The fruits of that effort will then be dumped off Matunuck, in hopes it will replenish Roy Carpenter’s and other beaches stripped by coastal storms. "This community depends so much upon this channel,’’ said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., at a brief ceremony at Salty Brine State Beach. The dredging is expected to begin Dec. 15 and last until mid-March. Three years in the making, the project has entailed coordination between the state Coastal Resources Management Council and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well as the towns of Narragansett and South Kingstown -- who were all represented today. The work will include removing 90,000 cubic yards of sand and sediment from about 20 acres encompassing the harbor channels and anchorage areas. Natural shoaling in the entrance and the east and west branch channels as well as the 6-foot channel leading into Point Judith Pond is making navigation hazardous, according to the Army Corps. The dredging will be done by a hopper or mechanical dredge. A dump scowl will then, within days, be towed to two designated disposal sites in the inter-tidal zone off Matunuck. A storm ate away at Roy Carpenter’s Beach just before Halloween, leaving barely 20 feet of sand between the beach community and the water. Last year, a series of storms destroyed a snack shop there and a wooden boardwalk at South Kingstown Town Beach. "We are in desperate need of sand,’’ said Tom Pyne, president of Carpenter’s beach association. -- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney The Corps abandoned plans to place the dredged sand at East Matunuck State Beach out of concern that the replenished beach would attract piping plovers, an endangered shorebird. The dumping grounds were shifted to two spots off Matunuck after lobbying by the town and a letter writing campaign by beachgoers at Carpenter’s. The material has tested as clean and would be dropped in water that is 15 to 18 feet deep at low tide, said Michael Walsh, project manager for the Army Corps. Pyne said he realizes that placing the dredged material off the coast doesn’t offer an absolute solution, but he hopes that at the very least it will slow the wave action. "It’s a crap shoot, but it can’t hurt,’’ he said. A total of $2.2 million in federal funds has been designated for the Point Judith project, $334,000 of which would go toward the disposal, according to federal officials. The towns of South Kingstown and Narragansett are sponsoring the project with the CRMC. The work will be overseen by the Corps. Maintenance dredging was last done on the Harbor of Refuge in 1977, when approximately 72,000 cubic yards of material was removed. Walsh said the work shouldn’t interfere with ferry and other boat traffic in the harbor. -- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney Posted by Andrea Panciera CommentsPost a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006