Updated 1:30 pm, Wednesday
The Menemsha Channel dredge project came to a grinding halt Monday when the Army Corps of Engineers shut down the $2.2 million project in order 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), which stipulated that work had to stop on Jan. 31 to allow for the migration of winter flounder.
It is the latest in a long series of delays for a project that was initially scheduled to be completed last year.
“I wasn’t shocked with the decision, but I was hopeful that the odd weather pattern would buy us a little more time,” 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 Monday. “But clearly that didn’t happen.”
“If we could fire up today, we’d have it done by the end of the month,” Al Johnson, owner of dredge company JWay Southern told The Times on Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate. The Army Corps [of Engineers] has nothing to do with it, their hands are tied by the state regulations. But even the local fishermen in the area say there just isn’t any winter flounder there.”
Craig Martin, project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers, told The Times on Wednesday that an appeal for a three week extension was filed with the DEP on January 26, but was denied on January 29.
“DMF and DEP say it’s our responsibility to prove there’s no winter flounder in that area, and that relies on extensive studies which we decided in this case not to do,” he said. “Even the prospect of the flounder being there often limits our ability to do work in those areas.”
Mr. Martin said it was easier to get extensions last year because the excessively cold winter delayed winter and spring spawning cycles. He added the DMF suggested deadline for the original permit was January 15, but the DEP had extended it to January 31.
“Winter flounder drives a lot of our windows this time of year,” he said.
When completed, 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.
Mr. Stearns estimates the roughly 15,000 cubic yards of the contracted 41,000 cubic yards has been dredged to date. “But they never made it where it needs it the most, inside the red nun, inside the pond,” he said.
Mr. Stearns said the Army Corps of Engineers has the final say in the denial, but it takes guidance from state agencies. “DMF tends to be pretty strict with its deadlines, in particular with winter flounder,” he said.
Mr. Stearns said that bulldozers from JWay Southern will continue to grade the sand that has been pumped to Lobsterville Beach, in a pipeline stretching over two miles. He also said the Island has already benefited from the project.
“That sand saved Lobsterville Road during that blizzard,” he said, referring to a nor’easter that hit the Island on Jan. 23-24. “The water was up as high as it was during Sandy, and that was with the additional sand. There’s no doubt in my mind that road would be gone without it.”
Damage control
Tuesday night, Mr. Stearns addressed the concerns of Aquinnah selectmen, who cited damage to West Basin Road and to the edge of West Basin, where a large relay pump was stationed.
“There’s definitely things that need to be addressed,” he told The Times on Wednesday. “Water from the large pump did create some erosion at the end of West Basin. It’s going to get a second impact when the job is finished in the fall. I think we can live with it this summer without any problem. Before JWay comes back, we’ll talk about how to better protect the bank.”
Mr. Stearns said they will also discuss restoration of the bank when the work is completed, which will most likely be a combination of stones, hardener, and beach grass. He said the ruts along West Basin road where the heavy equipment was running and pipe was laid, are “relatively minimal” and will be filled and seeded by next summer.
Another topic the Aquinnah selectmen raised with Mr. Stearns is exactly where the dredge company will store its equipment in the interim.
JWay Southern had to move a staggering amount of equipment to the Island — a total of 30 tractor-trailers came over on SSA ferries, half of them laden with pipeline. Bulldozers came from the mainland on barges. Mr. Stearns and Mr. Johnson will discuss possible options on Thursday.
History of delays
Winter flounder is the first of many environmental roadblocks in the coming year.
“The winter flounder migration overlaps with the herring run, which begins in March and runs from mid-to late June,” he said. “Then we have to watch for the plovers and oystercatchers. It may be possible to work in June with a [piping plover] monitor. But it’s not realistic to dredge during the summer. Then we’ll probably have to wait for the Derby,” he said, referring to the annual five-week Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, which runs from mid-September to mid-October. “We hope it’ll resume in October. But we don’t know their availability yet.”
The bedeviled project was originally scheduled to begin in October 2014, but delays in securing state and federal permits pushed the project back one year. Early this October, Hurricane Joaquin delayed the JWay Southern crew’s departure from a job in Georgia. Work on the pipeline from Menemsha Channel to Lobsterville Beach began as soon as the Derby was over. A total of 300 pipes had to be fused together. Dredging began in earnest on Jan. 2, but came to a halt when the impeller, a crucial piece on the dredge, seized and cracked, something Mr. Johnson said he’d never seen in his 52 years in the business. But the delay only set crews back a few days, and when work resumed, it went faster than expected, an average of 2,400 cubic yards of sand a day.
In addition to nourishing Lobsterville Beach, 3,000 cubic yards of the high-quality Menemsha Channel sand was earmarked for Squibnocket Beach.
“Chilmark will still get its sand,” Mr. Stearns said. “Just not this year.”
Mr. Johnson maintained the work could be done this summer without being overly intrusive. “We work in Miami Beach, Fort Myers, Sanibel, all up and down the Florida coast during the winter. It’s never been a problem,” he said.
Mr. Johnson said it cost $600,000 to set up for the dredge, and it will cost roughly $400,000 to dismantle it and to reassemble in October, depending on where the equipment has to be stored. “It’s too bad. That sand is really pretty. They could have had a great beach this summer.”
Mr. Martin said in the next few weeks, a decision will be made whether to bring JWay Southern back to complete the dredge or to hire a new contractor in October.
“Either way the project will be completed this fall,” Mr. Martin said. “We’re not going to leave Menemsha high and dry with a partially dredged channel.”
