47 ABC gets ride along with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
OCEAN CITY, Md. – 47 ABC riding along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as they worked on dredging the Ocean City Inlet. The dredging goes into maintaining Maryland’s only access to the Atlantic Ocean, helping both recreational and commercial boaters.
After the captain gives the go ahead, the dredge Currituck begins its journey to a designated area in the inlet, where it will start sucking up sand and water. Next, the sediment will be carried away and later deposited near Assateague Island as part of the restoration project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tells says this process isn’t just about clearing channels on the inlet floor for boat travel. It’s also a key part of preventing erosion. “The material can be used for this island’s re-nourishment, and the material can also be used for wetland restoration or island creation. All things that are kind of categorized as beneficial use of sediment,” said Danielle Szimanski, ecologist and project manager.
As the dredge makes its way towards the island, water drains from the collected sand. Once the dredge is in place, the sand is deposited. Hopefully it will drift toward the shoreline. The army corps says that many people rely on dredging, from the coast guard to fishermen. “This is the only ocean inlet for the state of Maryland to the Atlantic Ocean. This is a highly productive and highly used area of Maryland,” said Szimanski.
The crew aboard the dredge is from North Carolina. Captain Donnie Potter says they work up and down the East Coast.
“We work from Florida to Maine and so we’re jumping from project to project rather quickly, but we hope we’re making an impact where we’re at and that we leave them better than when we arrive,” said Potter.
The U.S. Army Corps tells us that dredging in this area only happens a could of times a year, but what it’s really about is getting out on the water whenever and wherever possible. They also say that they had a budget that would allow them to work for 30 days. The two six-man crews expect to finish it in 15 days by working 24 hour shifts.
