Harwich Dredge Master Plan
This project has evolved as a T&E addition to the original Contract for obtaining/maintaining the dredge permits for the Town of Harwich, at their various sites.
The reason it is an offshoot is that it:
1. Includes dredge disposal options for all the beaches in town, and
2. The Harbormaster wants to dredge down to –8MLW when the previous permits were to –6 to –7 MLW.
According to MEPA, any footprint for deeper dredge is considered new dredge. Ten or more acres requires an EIR. The Harbormaster’s request far exceeds ten acres.
Granular sand dredge material is not a problem. This material is found in the outer channel, and the inner channel up to the harbor entrance (which in most cases is not much further inward than the landward end of the entrance jetties). This material is desirable for beneficial use as beach nourishment.
The problem in developing a Master Plan is what to do with the heavily fine dredge material.
Coastal has only a verbal agreement to do the Town Meeting authorized Allen Harbor dredge design and permitting. This is different funding from the scope outlined above.
The thing that must be most considered is attaining the Town’s goals at the most efficient, economical and timely manner. To this end, we must keep in mind the big picture, regardless of the different funding requirements.
The Town has five harbors/navigational channels:
¨ Herring River, which is only a navigational channel
¨ Allen Harbor
¨ Wychmere Harbor
¨ Saquatucket Harbor
¨ Round Cove
The effort both in man-hours, permit requirements, and cost for Allen Harbor, is similar to each other harbor, and almost similar to doing all five combined. Therefore the objective is to design and permit all the harbors as part of a Master Plan. The Master Plan can receive State and Federal endorsement and can be utilized for pursuing future “new dredge initiatives” that are referenced in the Master Plan, or consistent with the Master Plan.
In the pre-application meetings, it was established that the sediment characteristics would be one of the main issues, other than Fisheries. The quantity of fines in Allen Harbor, Wychmere Harbor, Saquatucket Harbor and Round Cove are enormous. Additionally, it is unknown:
¨ When the Town will want to dredge the Inner Harbors;
¨ How much of the harbor will be proposed for dredging;
¨ What the total quantities of fine dredge material will be dredged.
The Regulatory Agencies agreed that, this being the case, the Town can proceed as follows:
¨ File a permit that identifies areas of fine materials and areas of coarse material;
¨ Indicate that pre-dredge sampling will take place;
¨ Establish a protocol to be approved for the handling, de-watering and disposal of fines that fall in to the different categories, i.e., fines, no chemical issues, vs. fines with chemical issues;
¨ Establish that suitable granular material will be earmarked for beneficial use as beach nourishment along the Harwich shoreline;
¨ Identify the entire shoreline as potential nourishment sites, thereby giving the Town the greatest flexibility for periodic beach enhancement.
Fisheries seems cooperative, but of course, will put in their standard criticisms and comments.
The Scope is thus, as follows:
1. Environmental Review
2. Local Permitting
3. State and Federal Permitting.
Survey and plan requirements for the Environmental Review:
¨ Plans indicating scope of work
¨ Data from existing plans and surveys should suffice.
Additional data required:
Understanding of the make-up of the dredge material should be established. This would possibly mean either doing sampling for all harbors and channels now, or taking representative samples of the fines from each harbor. It would be wise to let Woods Hole Group make that determination since they will be justifying its adequacy as representative. Coastal will then take the samples.
Additionally, Coastal and WHG to establish requirements for the ENF submittal.
