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Posted: Fri May 15th, 2009 02:04 pm |
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By Glenn Rolfe
Leader & State Register
SEAFORD – Economics, employment and environment.
These three “E’s” garnered the spotlight in Sussex County Councilman Michael Vincent’s recent question-and-answer presentation on proposed Nanticoke River dredging that drew support, opposition and concerns.
Speaking at the event sponsored by the Sussex County League of Women Voters, Mr. Vincent’s April 30 update included plans for dredging and the county’s continued search to secure a suitable site for placement of dredged material.
Dredging, last done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1990s and under discussion for the past six or seven years, would enhance navigational/barge commerce and the economy, said Mr. Vincent.
The economic impact in 2005 was estimated at $2.5 billion, according to a Salisbury University study.
“We are very concerned about jobs on the Delmarva Peninsula,” said Mr. Vincent. “We are certainly concerned about the environment.”
Through federal funding, the Army Corps of Engineers will conduct dredging, deepening the channel depth to 12 feet or more. The proposed target area is a 2.8 mile stretch, starting from near the railroad bridge in Seaford then heading west. A section some six miles downstream at Hawk’s Nest Shoal is also under consideration, Mr. Vincent said.
Local financial obligation – in this case Sussex County – is to provide a suitable and approved placement site for material dredged from the river bottom. The Corps of Engineers says about 20 acres are needed, Mr. Vincent said.
Potential sites include the former Woodland Golf Course property and three locations at INVISTA (DuPont) – uplands, fly ash pit area and the site where material was placed when the river was last dredged.
Mr. Vincent said county council recently financed an engineering study to determine if any site at INVISTA is “suitable” and worth looking at.
This raised environmental flags.
Don Allen, president of the Nanticoke Watershed Preservation, noted that the fly ash pit is not lined. “Fly ash does become a permeable surface so whatever is put there could potentially run off,” said Mr. Allen.
Environmentalist Jack Conner, who lives downstream from INVISTA, is a member of several organizations, including Nanticoke Watershed Alliance and Delaware Creekwatchers and Delaware Tributary Action Team.
“We’ve been told by the EPA to clean up the river,” Mr. Conner said. “I don’t like to see something go in that has the possibility of undoing what has been worked on. I am not sure that dredging wouldn’t be detrimental to the river’s health.”
“Obviously anything that would be done would be under the OK of DNREC,” said Mr. Vincent.
Data provided to Mr. Vincent estimates that 1,316,800 tons of materials were transported by 268 barges in 2008, which equates to about 75,000 tractor trailers. Due to shallow depth, barges that 10 years ago carried 56,000 tons now carry 45,000 tons, Mr. Vincent said.
According to Becky Robinson, executive director of the Delmarva Water Transport Committee, the Corps of Engineers now prioritizes dredging through surveys based on tonnage – and anything less than one million tons will not be dredged by the Corps.
Incidents involving barge traffic and damage to private property also surfaced. Mr. Allen provided photographs from a Woodland couple’s river bluff property, noting that in just five to six years the owners have lost about five percent of their land through damage caused by barge/tugboat impacts.
“Policing of what goes on on that river is terribly lacking,” Mr. Allen said.
News Editor Glenn Rolfe can be reached at 629-5505 or grolfe@newszap.com.
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