Harwich Gets State Approval Of Comprehensive Dredge Permit

by William F. Galvin

            HARWICH – It has been a couple of years in the permitting process, but the state Department of Environmental Protection this week issued a comprehensive dredge and beach nourishment Chapter 91 license to the town for projects along Nantucket Sound.

            The comprehensive permit is the first of its kind for the town and will be valid for a 10-year period, allowing dredging of Saquatucket, Wychmere and Allen harbor channels and the Herring River entrance channel, as well as beach nourishment on public and private beaches from Herring River to Red River Beach.

            “This is wonderful, it’s been like juggling eggs,” Harbormaster Thomas Leach said on Tuesday of the six separate licenses previously issued to the town, all bearing different expiration dates. This permit is good for all the channels along Nantucket Sound and will run through March 6, 2019.

            “We’ve gotten totally streamlined and have carte blanche to dispose of materials on any beaches necessary,” the harbormaster said.

            The permit is pretty much as expected, but Leach said there is one minor discrepancy they hope to be able to rectify. There is a closed window to dredging from Jan. 15 through May 30 each year designed to protect spawning, larval and juvenile development of winter flounder.

The previous permits closed that window on May 15, Leach said. Most communities are not allowed to dredge until June 15, and the earlier time frame gave Harwich an upper hand in gaining access to the county dredge each season, he said.

The town retained Coastal Engineering, Inc. of Orleans to assist with obtaining the comprehensive Chapter 91 license. They are hoping to work with the state to return the dredging window to May 15, he said.

Leach said the state Division of Marine Fisheries, which oversees the fisheries interests in this permitting process, has notified Coastal Engineering that work outside the jetty entrances to the harbors would have no date restrictions.

“That would be huge,” Leach said pointing out that most of the channel dredging is done outside the jetties.

The permit allows the town to dredge to six feet with an allowable one-foot overdredge in Herring River, Allen and Wychmere harbor entrance channels. It allows dredging eight feet below mean low water in Saquatucket Harbor channel with a one-foot overdredge.

There are also provisions in place in the permit to protect nesting piping plovers, Leach said. It calls for no placement and removal of pipes or other equipment, and dewatering and grading of dredged material to occur between April 1 and Aug. 31 unless explicitly approved by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. That is administered by Conservation Administrator John Chatham, Leach said.

Leach said the permit is good news because his department has plans to dredge the entrance channel and between the jetties in Allen Harbor this spring along with the entrance channel to Saquatucket Harbor. He also said a shoal in the bottleneck of Wychmere Harbor channel between the yacht club and Snow Inn may also be removed.

Leach said his department has $86,757 remaining in two dredge articles, but he also has two offers from private property owners along Neel Road to purchase a total of 2,400 cubic yards of material for erosion control purposes to be placed on beaches in front of their homes.

The town has a new beach nourishment plan in place allowing private property owners to purchase material should there be excess after public needs are addressed.

3/12/09