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dredge

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Eastham Pulls Out of Nauset Dredging Plan

    After investing $600K, Orleans unlikely to find a way forward

    By

    EASTHAM — At a joint meeting with the Orleans Select Board on Dec. 13, the Eastham Select Board voted unanimously to pull out of the Nauset Estuary Dredge permitting process. That leaves the future of the project, which has been in the works since 2015, uncertain.

    All five Eastham board members expressed concerns about sharing the cost of the $3.1-million project without sufficient economic data showing how their investment in the water economy would pay off.

    “We’re talking about a multi-million-dollar project over a number of years,” said the Eastham board chair, Art Autorino. “But there’s nothing that says, ‘Here’s the economic benefit, here’s what you’re going to save.’ ”

    A memorandum of understanding (M.O.U.) signed by the towns in May stipulated that both towns would produce a study detailing the economic benefits of the dredging, but that never materialized.

    Meanwhile, the M.O.U. established that Orleans would pay for the cost of permitting the project. Since 2016, Orleans has spent $670,000 for permit-related work done primarily by Woods Hole Group, an environmental engineering firm in Bourne. Townspeople committed another $160,000 for that effort at last spring’s town meeting.

    The agreement gave Eastham the right to back out of the permitting process. And it appears unlikely that the permitting could go forward successfully without Eastham on board.

    “I don’t think it would get very far without Eastham on that permit,” said select board member Aimee Eckman of Eastham, a longtime opponent of the project.

    Aiding Fishermen

    Shoaling has made the estuary channels difficult to navigate, especially when the tide is low. As a result, lobstermen have to keep their boats moored near the inlet, using skiffs to bring in fuel and other supplies.

    Nauset Estuary and its barrier beach. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Garrett Loparto, a second-generation lobsterman and Eastham resident, said it’s impossible to get his boat, a 33-footer, into Town Cove without “the highest freakin’ tide.”

    In 2018, Orleans commercial fishermen brought in a collective catch worth $2.66 million, according to the Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries. In Eastham, the catch was worth $1.25 million.

    The dredging project would deepen the channel behind Nauset spit, the long, sandy barrier protecting Nauset Marsh. Two smaller dredging operations would deepen and widen the channels to Priscilla Landing and Mill Pond. The entire project would move 155,560 cubic yards of sand and silt, more than the Barnstable County Dredge relocated in all of 2021. Maintenance dredging would be required every year behind the barrier beach and every 8 to 15 years in the other areas, according to the town of Eastham website.

    Proponents believe the dredging will benefit commercial fishermen and water-based businesses like Goose Hummock Shops, the recreational outfitters. They also believe it will improve water quality for aquaculture in the estuary.

    Eastham Select Board member and oyster farmer Jared Collins said he understood why Orleans wanted to support the project. “Stationed at Collins Landing, I’ve seen basically every shellfish person move out and move their vessels to Hemenway or sell things completely,” Collins said. “I feel for the people who now have restricted times to get in and out and the inconvenience of having to moor their boats in different places.”

    Protecting Private Property

    Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe brought up Eastham’s low-lying waterfront property owners at the Dec. 13 meeting, saying they depend on the barrier beach for protection. “The total amount of assessed value of those properties is $82,660,200,” she said.

    Beebe said Eastham had a responsibility to protect its property owners. “If we do something that impacts this barrier beach and the barrier gets smaller and the marsh goes away, then those property owners are at the risk of the ocean,” she said.

    “The assessed value of your two big businesses,” she told the Orleans board, referring to Goose Hummock Shops and Nauset Marine, “is $1,000,693.”

    What About Safety?

    One purpose of the project is to enhance safety and navigability for commercial and recreational users of the inlet. But Eastham and Orleans officials disagree on the need from that point of view.

    At the Dec. 13 joint meeting, Eckman dismissed the dredging as a safety project and said that Eastham’s first responders “can get to anybody” on the water.

    At a public forum in June, Eckman contended that, because the dredge would not touch Nauset inlet itself, it would not help first responders reach people in open water.

    At that time, Nate Sears, the Orleans harbormaster, disagreed, responding, “You can probably monkey around on the sandbars, but you’re not going to get anywhere in a hurry.”

    When it comes to the possibility that the permits could go forward without Eastham on board, the issue of safety is important, said Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly at the Dec. 8 meeting of the Orleans Select Board. That’s because the Cape Cod National Seashore, which also owns land that would be dredged, will not sign off on permits for an economic improvement project.

    A Tough Decision

    When it came time to vote, Eastham board members Al Cestaro and Collins each paused for several seconds before joining the rest of the board and backing out of the project.

    “I feel for everyone, but ultimately it’s the cost,” said Collins. “I don’t think the constituency in this town is going to go for it.”

    Cestaro, who is a fisherman, said Eastham has a number of other costly infrastructure projects on the horizon, including wastewater management and a Route 6 redesign.

    “Nauset Harbor has been an economic asset for 400 years,” said Orleans Select Board Chair Meff Runyon. Runyon asked that the permitting process continue and suggested that a final decision on the dredging itself should wait until both towns signed off on permits and more data is gathered.

    But Beebe said that extending the process would only make it harder for Eastham to pull out. “Let’s be really honest,” she said. “When you apply for a permit, you are saying, ‘We want to do this, and this is how we want to do it.’ It is a commitment.”

    One other element of the M.O.U. between the towns: it gave Eastham the right to “comprehensively deny any dredging activities within the Town of Eastham boundaries.” Some of the dredging is set to take place on Eastham land and would require approval from the Eastham Conservation Commission.

    When asked by a member of the Orleans board whether they would exercise their right to deny permits for dredging within town boundaries, none of the Eastham officials responded.

    When the Orleans Select Board met on Dec. 15, two days following their joint meeting with the Eastham board, the possibility of terminating the dredge project was raised. Kelly told the board that the Woods Hole Group was being paid on a step-by-step basis, so only a small closeout bill would be due.

    The board decided to table a decision until Jan. 5, but Kelly gave the project a gloomy prognosis.

    “The voters were told that Eastham was cooperating with the project, but that we were funding it,” he said. Now, he continued, “you’re potentially working against not only the financial but the political side as well. And that seems to be where we’re at now.”

    WELLFLEET: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS

    Dredging Almost Done

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    All meetings in Wellfleet are remote only and can be watched online. Go to wellfleet-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.

    Thursday, Dec. 16

    • Natural Resources Advisory Board, 10 a.m.
    • Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m.
    • Local Housing Partnership, 3 p.m.
    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.
    • Community Preservation Committee, 7 p.m.

    Friday, Dec. 17

    • Affordable Housing Trust and Select Board, 4 p.m.
    • Select Board Executive Session, 4 p.m.

    Tuesday, Dec. 21

    • Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Dredging Almost Done

    Sailing in Wellfleet Harbor will soon be a lot smoother, even at low tide. According to Marina Advisory Committee Chair Joe Aberdale, 96,000 cubic yards of harbor silt had been removed from the inner harbor as of Dec. 8, putting this year’s dredging near completion.

    “There are about eight working days left to complete the project,” Aberdale said at a dredging contractor and engineers’ progress meeting on Dec. 8.

    “We got a lot of fishing boats coming into the harbor now for dockage,” said Harbormaster William Sullivan. “It’s been pretty busy between the holidays here.”

    It took 77 scow (flat-bottomed boat) trips to move the silt to the federal disposal area in Cape Cod Bay.

    The current work is part two of a three-phase undertaking. The first part, completed in 2020, cleared the federal channel.

    The federal channel and the inner harbor dredging cost $10 million in a combination of federal, state, and local funds, Sullivan told the Independent.

    The final area, the mooring field, comes next. There is no cost estimate yet, and the town must obtain permits before starting that phase, Sullivan said.

    Lt. Island Bridge Blues

    The select board on Dec. 14 unanimously approved a change order to the contract with Coastal Engineering to allow completion of repairs to the Lt. Island Bridge.

    “The current contract expires Dec. 31 of this year,” said Dept. of Public Works Director Jay Norton. “I’m looking to make sure that this is done before Memorial Day,” he added.

    The contractor needs eight weeks to order building materials. “They’re looking at doing the repairs in February, March, or April at the latest,” Norton said.

    The long-planned bridge repairs will bring the bridge up to national and state safety standards, according to the project’s bid documents, by replacing worn and deteriorated components.

    It was supposed to be done earlier. But on Oct. 29, Coastal Engineering found rot in the bridge’s support beams. That came as a surprise because the bridge has undergone regular inspections by both the state and town. Island residents already time their lives by the tides. The repairs add complexity to their daily comings and goings.

    The project cost is $77,495, plus $19,970 spent on temporary supports to keep the bridge open after the rot was discovered, Norton said. —Michaela Chesin

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    Orleans Will Fund Nauset Beach Project, Dredging, Free Preschool

    By

    ORLEANS — The Nauset Beach retreat project, dredging at Rock Harbor, and a preschool support program were among the articles passed at the Orleans special town meeting held on Oct. 25 at Nauset Regional Middle School.

    The vote on Article 7 was 224 to 81 in favor of funding Phase 2 of the beach project for $3.3 million. It is an effort to respond to erosion and prepare for more of it. It includes constructing a new 218-space parking lot at the town-owned Hubler Motel property behind the current beach parking lot.

    An access road connecting the former motel to the current Nauset Beach parking lot and a septic system leach field to support the construction of a new administration building and bathroom facilities are also part of the plan.

    The estimated construction cost is $4.3 million, but the town won a state grant of $1 million to help offset that.

    Phase 1 of the project included constructing a large dune at the front of the beach and reconfiguring the parking lot. It was done after a tropical storm in 2017 caused heavy erosion and destroyed Liam’s at Nauset Beach, a popular seafood shack.

    Article 8, a request for $580,000 for emergency shoal dredging at Rock Harbor, passed with a resounding 292-to-16 vote. That project will remove about 1,470 cubic yards of sediment to a depth of minus three feet below mean low water. The goal is to ensure safe navigation until full dredging can be completed as scheduled in the fall of 2023.

    “If we don’t clear it out, we won’t be going out of that harbor except on the very highest of high tides,” said Bill Amaru of the shellfish and waterways improvement advisory committee. “There are a dozen commercial vessels that fish out of there year-round and another 20 to 25 seasonal charter boats — the largest charter boat fleet in the state of Massachusetts.”

    The town meeting also voted 221 to 86 to spend $495,000 on universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds in Orleans. The measure is intended to support young families. Parents can choose any licensed pre-K provider; once it is deemed eligible, payment will be made directly to the service provider up to a maximum of $10,000 per year for each four-year-old and $5,000 per year for each three-year-old.

    Similar programs have already been implemented and funded in Provincetown, Truro, Eastham, Wellfleet, Chatham, and Mashpee.

    THE DREDGE REPORT

    Race to Rescue Oysters From Dredge’s Path

    Silt would put Chipman’s Cove’s ‘tremendous’ oyster crop at risk

    By

    WELLFLEET — When the dense sea lettuce in Chipman’s Cove cleared up a few weeks ago, Nancy Civetta and Johnny “Clam” Mankevetch of the Wellfleet Shellfish Dept. strolled through at low tide to judge how best to prepare for the harbor dredging set to begin on Oct. 1. Scanning the bottom, they saw an oyster bonanza.

    DREDGE REPORT

    Eastham Officials Question Benefits of Nauset Estuary Dredging Plan

    Eckman and Autorino doubt safety and economy arguments

    By

    EASTHAM — A mixed bag of concerns about the proposed dredging of the Nauset Estuary emerged from the first citizens’ forums on the project held on June 22 and 29.

    The towns of Orleans and Eastham, which share the estuary, are considering the removal of 155,560 cubic yards of material from 28,300 linear feet of channel to a depth of minus five feet at mean low water from Town Cove to the estuary inlet, including spur channels to Priscilla Landing and the entrance to Mill Pond in Orleans.

    The dredged channels would be 50 feet wide, except for the channel behind the barrier beach, which would be 100 feet wide.

    The inlet itself would not be dredged. This element of the plan led some at the June 22 forum to question how the project would achieve its stated goal of improving navigation and public safety.

    “First responders can already reach the boaters in the estuary at any time,” said Eastham Select Board Vice Chair Aimee Eckman at that meeting. “The real problem is going through the inlet, which will not be affected by the dredge proposal.” Eckman noted that she was speaking for herself and not as a representative of the board.

    Eckman said that, according to Eastham’s harbormaster, there is a sandbar across the inlet at astronomical low tides and only one or two feet of water in the inlet at normal low tides.

    A boat heads out through the inlet at Nauset Marsh. (Photo Linda Culhane)

    She said that Eastham was improving public safety in the estuary without dredging, by marking the channels behind the barrier beach, hiring additional personnel to patrol the marsh, purchasing several emergency response watercraft, and providing extra training to emergency personnel.

    “Is there any evidence to suggest that dredging behind the barrier beach or anywhere in the estuary would make the inlet any safer or even passable at low tide?” Eckman asked.

    “Because we’re not dredging to the inlet, no, it’s not going to make it easier to pass through,” acknowledged Leslie Fields, the project manager, who works for the Woods Hole Group. She added that, based on information from emergency responders, dredging would make it easier for them to respond more quickly to incidents behind the barrier beach and elsewhere in the estuary.

    Orleans Harbormaster Nate Sears agreed with Fields.

    “There’s a window where it’s low tide at the inlet that carries on through the estuary on both sides of the tide,” said Sears. “It shortens the amount of time that you can respond if you can’t get through some of that skinny water.”

    Other residents were concerned about what could get into the estuary through the deeper dredged channels.

    “We just saw seals for the first time last year in Mill Pond, and it was quite startling,” noted an Orleans homeowner. “You know, where there’s seals, there are sharks.”

    Another Orleans resident asked what the economic benefit would be for the town. The project is estimated to cost approximately $3.1 million.

    “The Eastham Select Board hasn’t seen that economic benefit, either,” said Art Autorino, chair of the board. “We would really like to see that defined as the project goes forward, as a justification to do it.”

    The June 29 forum focused on the disposition of the dredged material and drew comments from Nauset Heights residents concerned about the proposed pumping of 26,080 cubic yards of material that could contain red tide cysts from the Priscilla and Mill Pond channels to a dewatering basin that will cover 6.8 acres of coastal dune north of Nauset Public Beach.

    While a pilot project conducted for development of the proposal found that red tide cysts buried in a dune were not viable after six months, area residents questioned whether the cysts could pose a health hazard.

    “I encourage you to understand the liability you’re creating if, god forbid, any of my family or the neighborhood gets sick,” said one Nauset Heights resident. “And what happens if you potentially sicken those beachgoers along the beach.”

    Another Heights resident suggested a public health expert be consulted. “Is there an airborne risk?” he asked.

    A sidecast dredge method is proposed for the 119,830 cubic yards of material behind the barrier beach and eastern main channel reaches. A hydraulic cutter suction sidecast dredge would create a sand-and-water slurry that would be broadcast 60 to 80 feet west of the channel.

    The 9,660 cubic yards of material from the Town Cove and the central main channel reaches would be mechanically dredged to a barge and offloaded to trucks at the Goose Hummock Town Landing for transport to permitted sites in South Dennis.

    Once the initial project is completed, maintenance dredging is expected to be needed every 10 to 15 years for the Town Cove and central main channel reaches, every year for the barrier beach and eastern main channel reaches, and every 8 to 10 years for the Priscilla Landing and Mill Pond channels.

    The project’s Expanded Environmental Notification Form under the state’s Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) could be submitted for review as early as July 30, which would then open the MEPA comment period from Aug. 11 to 31.

    Approval under MEPA is the first of at least eight permits required for the project to go forward.

    ENVIRONMENT

    With Disclaimers, Select Board Signs Nauset Dredging Memo

    Eastham and Orleans have differing priorities, says Eckman

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board voted on May 17 to sign the second memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Orleans on the Nauset Estuary Dredging Project, agreeing to continued coordination between the two towns. But the members made it clear that they were signing on for a fact-finding mission only, and that the question of whether and how to dredge had not been decided.

    “We need everybody to understand there’s no final decisions,” said board member Art Autorino at the May 13 joint meeting with the Orleans Select Board. “That, in the end, the select boards may say no, we’re not going to do it, or the select boards may say yes, or we may split.”

    The proposed $3.1-million project would dredge 155,560 cubic yards of material from a 5.6-mile channel from Town Cove to the inlet via the channel behind the Nauset barrier beach. The inlet would not be dredged.

    Shoaling in the channels and mooring areas has prevented commercial fishing vessels from accessing town landings, leaving them moored in the navigation channel south of the inlet.

    The Eastham board had appeared to be leaning away from signing the document at its May 3 meeting after reviewing the draft Expanded Environmental Notification Form (EENF) prepared by the Woods Hole Group and paid for by Orleans.

    The Nauset Estuary with the barrier beach in the distance. (Photo Linda Culhane)

    Select board vice chair Aimee Eckman said on May 13 that board members had been mistaken at that May 3 meeting in their impression that the second MOU was their last chance to back out of the project. Town counsel had advised that was not the case, she noted.

    The board’s concerns, noted on May 3 and seconded by Eastham’s Projects and Procurements Director Shana Brogan on May 13, included the width of the dredged channel behind the barrier beach. It had been expanded from a previously discussed 50-foot width to 100 feet. Other concerns were that the channel would be within 100 feet of the back of the barrier beach, that side cast dredging was proposed for that channel, that the ongoing Center for Coastal Studies study of the area would not be completed until 2022, and what effects the project would have on nearly 60 acres of shellfish flats.

    Board chair Jamie Demetri noted a proposal in the draft EENF to relocate the shellfish. “Some shellfish are easy to relocate,” said Demetri on May 13, but she cautioned that other species, such as soft-shell clams and mussels, did not like to be moved. “They really set up shop where they are. They like their habitat,” Demetri said. “I would hate to see us decimate one form of livelihood for folks to encourage another.”

    Eckman said there seemed to be different priorities between the two towns and noted that, while Eastham has a few commercial fishermen, the dredging project had more support in Orleans with its larger number of commercial fisherman and businesses advocating for the project to move forward.

    “We definitely have more people concerned about the environmental impacts on the estuary, and it’s very important that we protect that resource,” said Eckman.

    Woods Hole Group coastal geologist Leslie Fields explained at the May 13 meeting that the EENF was the first “in a long line of regulatory reviews that the project will have to undergo.”

    Fields said meetings to receive comments on the draft EENF would be scheduled in May with the Nauset Estuary Stakeholders group and a public meeting would be held in June for residents of Eastham and Orleans.

    The draft EENF is posted on Eastham’s town website.

    NAUSET WATERFRONT

    Eastham and Orleans Officials Will Meet on Estuary Dredging

    Select board puts off a decision to pull its support of project

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board stopped short of withdrawing its support for the Nauset Estuary dredging project at its May 3 meeting, voting instead to meet for discussions with Orleans officials before the Orleans town meeting on May 22, where a $160,000 request to fund the permitting and design of the project awaits voters.

    THE DREDGE REPORT

    Crabbing the Muck on the Codfish II

    Barnstable County dredges the Outer Cape’s harbors

    By

    dredge1
    The Codfish II and Jason Bevis, Barnstable County dredge superintendent, dredge Provincetown harbor. (Photos Josephine de La Bruyère)

    PROVINCETOWN — Spudded just east of MacMillan Wharf, the Codfish II is crabbing. Behind her, her pipe threads beneath two piers and floats. Ahead, her cutterhead sinks, spins. Her depth gauge bobs and Caterpillar engine hums, and on her deck stands Jason Bevis — Barnstable County’s brusque, bearded dredge superintendent — explaining what every word of that means.

    The Codfish II has dredged for Barnstable County for 18 months. Bevis has dredged for Barnstable County for a decade. He has dredged channels and harbors and riverways up, down, and around Cape Cod. He spent three weeks stuck in Sesuit, waiting for the winds to die. In Cotuit, he sent muck into a pit at 22 feet per second. Muck flying at 22 feet per second, he says, could make a stone wall crumble. Here, in Provincetown, things move more slowly, and sand flows onto Court Street Landing at eight feet per second. It leaves the landing’s wall intact.

    Each year, the Barnstable County dredge team asks its towns what they need. The towns lucky enough to receive their services pay roughly 70 percent below the market rate. The county has at its disposal two dredges — the Codfish II and Sandshifter — eight men, and an operating budget of $940,823. In their 24 years, county dredges have removed 2,188,676 cubic yards of sand, silt, gunk, and stuff from the floors of Cape Cod’s waterways.

    And this year, the program’s 25th, two Outer Cape communities — Truro and Provincetown — contributed their muck to the running county tally. The Codfish II spent three weeks in Truro’s Pamet Harbor, moving 3,120 cubic yards of sand from its approach and inner channel to Corn Hill Beach for nourishment. Then, the Codfish II moved to Provincetown, for a project that was dinky by comparison: sucking 700-odd cubic yards of sand from the harbor breakwater’s northeast edge and depositing it at Court Street Landing.

    dredge2
    Jason Bevis on the job.

    The Codfish II’s Provincetown work should have taken a day. (In the same hypothetical vein, Provincetown Pier Manager Doug Boulanger would like to stress that “it should have been done last year — but we’re grateful that they came.”) Because of winds and tides, the parcel took two days — Dec. 21 and 22 — and this reporter spent that first day on the water.

    In her three months on Cape, the Wellfleet Harbor dredge, Woods I — operated by Cashman Dredging, contracted first to the Army Corps of Engineers, then the town — became a local celebrity. The Codfish II has had no such luck. Woods I filled Wellfleet Harbor with clangs and groans each time her clamshell bucket swung, splashed, or opened. The Codfish II puts on less of a show.

    She is an unassuming vessel, an Ellicott series 670 Dragon Dredge. Her hull measures 50 feet to Woods I’s 200-something. She has no crane, no bucket, no creaking cables. She is a hydraulic dredge, not a mechanical one. The drama happens below the water’s surface, where her six-blade cutterhead — 43 inches across — spins, agitating sand on the harbor floor. The cutterhead sits at the tip of a ladder (which looks precisely like a tube and nothing like a ladder, but no matter). It sucks the sand, airborne and swirling, through the ladder, aboard. The dredge’s engine room, humming, shoots it through that length of trailing pipe, onto whatever beach needs nourishment.

    Anchored by a three-point system (one 43-foot spud, or pile, in the rear; two 500-pound weights on each side), the dredge crabs side to side, side to side, each time moving forward a few inches. A leverman — Cory Fleming in this case, whom Bevis called “the nicest guy you’ll ever meet; not a people person, but the nicest guy you’ll ever meet” — controls the cutterhead, spud position, winches, digging depth, engine horsepower. To him, progress is obvious. To the rest of the world, it is nearly imperceptible. The Codfish II crabs on, whirring all the while.

    The dredge crew works 10 hours a day, six days a week, or seven, or zero, depending on the wind. Cold doesn’t matter — they bundle up. Bevis splits his time between the Codfish II and the Sandshifter. So does Ken Cirillo, county dredge administrator. They are always moving. Today, Bevis is dredging Provincetown. Tomorrow, he’s buying 4,600 gallons of fuel. Then he’s going south — with Cirillo, Fleming, and the rest of the crew — to crab, unassumingly, somewhere else.

    Editor’s note: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of gallons of fuel being bought by Ken Cirillo, the county dredge administrator. It was 4,600, not 46,000.

     

    THE DREDGE REPORT

    Wellfleet Loses Bid to Extend Dredging

    A win for the whales as their season in the bay begins

    By

    WELLFLEET — Throwing its weight behind the Balaenidae of Cape Cod Bay, the Army Corps of Engineers on Dec. 30 rejected the town’s last-ditch request for a two-week extension of its harbor dredging project permits.

    Barges with tugboats, like the ones being used for the dredging, are considered a major threat to right whales, said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, senior scientist and director of the right whale ecology program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

    Last year, more than half the world’s remaining population of North Atlantic right whales (then 356) made appearances in the bay. This year’s whale season, said Mayo, is just beginning — on Dec. 11, a CCS aerial survey team spotted one right whale in the middle of the bay.

    Also near the middle of the bay is the Cape Cod Bay Disposal Site, the new home of about 192,000 cubic yards of gunk from Wellfleet Harbor’s floor. Dredging season lasts annually from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

    Wellfleet’s comprehensive three-year dredging plan actually adds up to round-the-clock digging, scooping, and dumping for precisely nine months, with this year’s first three kicked off by the Army Corps’s October arrival to clear the harbor’s federal channel.

    That work allowed the Cashman Company’s indelicate equipment — each barge measures 255 feet — entry into the harbor’s town-owned crannies. Their federal channel work took just 10 weeks. Which allowed the town an opportunity for piggyback dredging, paying Cashman for the remaining two weeks of planned work to get a head start on the town’s silt.

    The dredging task force estimated in September that they’d manage 56,000 cubic yards of piggyback dredging. By October, they’d refined that number to 48,000. But as 2020 wound down, that goal seemed less and less achievable.

    Bad weather and the finesse required to dredge the harbor’s tighter corners slowed Cashman’s crew down. By the final permitted week of its project, Cashman logged just under 36,000 cubic yards of removed dredgestuffs, leaving Wellfleet with 397,000 to address over the next two seasons.

    Hence the town’s year-end Hail Mary, which would have stretched the dredging season to Jan. 15. But that would have meant continued barge traffic as the whale season arrived.

    Dredging task force co-chair Christopher Allgeier said he knew Wellfleet’s extension effort had been a long shot.

    “It’s okay,” he said. “We’re coming back to dredge next year anyway.”

    THE DREDGE REPORT

    They’re Out There, Digging

    By

    WELLFLEET — “Well,” said Dan Conroy, a field engineer-slash-hydrographic surveyor at Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting, a Quincy-based company working under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers, “I guess we’re digging.”

    Any other insights he wanted to offer? “Not really. That’s about it. We’re just out there, digging.”

    After 26 years, Wellfleet Harbor’s federal channel is finally getting dredged. (Photo Marc Agger)

    Wellfleet Harbormaster Michael Flanagan — who, in September, told the Independent the dredging project was “just incredibly exciting” — couldn’t offer many details, either.

    “I think it’s going pretty good. Seems like it. I mean” — he gestured to the two barges outside his office’s second-floor window — “they’re here.”

    He paused.

    “Yeah, I guess that’s all I got.”

    Kyle Reeves, Cashman’s project manager, proved even less forthcoming.

    “We can’t give any comment on the project,” Reeves said. “You’ll have to reach out to our client for that.”

    That would be the Army Corps of Engineers, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment. —Josephine de La Bruyère

    THE WATERFRONT

    Dredging of Federal Channel Begins at Last

    Army Corps arrives to launch three-year harbor project

    By

    WELLFLEET — It took a town-wide effort, a federal campaign, and 26 years, but the dredging of Wellfleet Harbor’s federal channel is set to begin on Oct. 1.

    “It’s just incredibly exciting,” said Wellfleet Harbormaster Michael Flanagan. “It’ll be absolutely night and day.”

    © 2023 The Provincetown Independent, all rights reserved.

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