Army Corps announces $7.5M in funding for dredging

April 13, 2016

Millions of dollars from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will allow for dredging needed to correct unusually heavy winter shoaling that has nearly closed the entrance and channels of Humboldt Bay.

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District announced Wednesday that the Corps has allocated $7.5 million, which is $5 million more than the amount budgeted for annual dredging.

“The cavalry is on their way,” Peter Mull, a civil engineer and project manager for the Corps, said in a statement.

Harbor district Executive Director Jack Crider said sediment carried by the Eel River has drifted into the mouth of the bay, blocking ships that draft deeper than 25 feet.

“The ocean currents and tidal action of the bay just pull the sediment right in,” Crider said.

The dredging will start around May 10 and be completed in early June, and the result will be shipping business as usual on Humboldt Bay, Crider said.

“The unique thing about this year is we’re not only going to get the main channel done, but we’re also going to get the interior channels dredged and the North Jetty repaired,” Crider said.

Crider and Harbor Commission President Patrick Higgins credited U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who urged the Corps to act.

“We have been working closely with Congressman Huffman and the Army Corps of Engineers to respond as quickly as conditions will permit to reopen the Bay entrance,” Higgins said in a statement. “We are very grateful to our friends at the Corps for this additional funding to respond to extraordinary shoaling this year.”

The Corps’ hopper dredge Essayons is on a dredging operation in Hawaii but will head to Humboldt Bay when that project is completed.

The Essayons helps maintain the entrance bars, rivers and harbors on the coasts of California, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska. The Essayons’ size and dredging depth make the craft ideal for clearing larger coastal entrances.

Huffman applauded the Corps’ quick response.

“I have recognized the need for dredging the entrance of Humboldt Bay since I took office, and I have regularly pressed for the necessary funding to get it done,” Huffman said in a statement. “The safety and viability of commercial and recreational traffic is the highest priority, and I thank the Army Corps for their efforts to respond to the recent shoaling problem.”

The Essayons will begin the dredging operation, Mull said, and a second dredge, the Bayport, will arrive in June to supplement Essayons’ work on the bar and interior channels.

Higgins, a fisheries biologist, said heavy El Niño storm runoff has flushed huge amounts of sediment into the ocean. As much as 20 feet of new shoal settles in the mouth of Humboldt Bay between the jetties.

“The river and near-shore northward littoral drift are like a giant conveyor belt, and whenever we have heavy rains this problem will recur,” Higgins said.

Improvements to the North Jetty will help reduce risk to people walking along the bay entrance.


Source: by Steven Moore