Wicomico County Making Progress at Sharps Point

EDEN, Md. — Since September, Wicomico County’s Division of Public Works has been working to clear out 400,000 cubic yards of sediment at Sharps Point. The dredge spoil has reached its capacity— preventing the US Army Corps of Engineers from dredging the Wicomico River. Now in Phase II, the county is slowly but surely making progress and considering potential beneficial reuse projects.

“Instead of taking that material out of the river bottom and placing it in a dredge management facility like this, let’s find immediate beneficial reuse placement sites,” Director of Environmental Services for Wicomico County Adam Corry said.

Corry said the county is working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, The Audubon Society, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, and other organizations to test the material and consider the best potential reuses. “Before we take any of those measures to place material for beneficial reuse, we have to make sure that laboratory analysis goes to the Maryland Department of the Environment for review. And of course, our partners want to know as well. Because you certainly don’t want to do more harm than good removing and replacing material somewhere it shouldn’t be.”

Doctor of Marine Restoration and Environmental Sciences Judith Stribling says the issue presents an opportunity to fight sea level rise. “This is a really exploding field. It is looking hard at how we keep ahead of sea level rise by just adding thin layers of sediment to our marshes and retaining the elevation that’s needed for endangered species and so forth.”

Transportation costs, however, are a barrier. “You could move it to Dorchester County to the marshes in that area along the Nanticoke River where the marshes are degrading, but as far as things that are in close proximity, that makes you a lot more limited, and you end up with transportation costs and trucking costs of some sort,” Dr. Stribling said.