Dredging Wickham Creek
May 24, 2008 by Paul Birman · 3 Comments
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
Dan and Barbara Christianson write,
The attached photographs were taken May 23rd, 2008 at Wickham Creek. A rig is setting up to dredge.
Click here to see the rest of Dan and Barbara’s photographs.
Yes, I am very happy to report that we received the permits for Wickham late on Friday so the dredging is starting today! I did want to once again thank the individuals which made this happen, plus explain exactly how these two locations were approved. Mr. Bob Whelan with SCDPW and I worked together to “sell” these projects to the appropriate agencies. First off, the DEC was very cooperative and approved these projects when discussed over the last two months. Neither the Army Corp or the NY Dept. of State were as cooperative. It took the assistance of Legislature Romaine, Senator LaValle, Assemblyman Alessi and staff members with Congressman Bishop and Senator Clinton to make this happen.
The two primary reasons why these two locations were done were 1) the presence of marinas, fuel docks and launching ramps used by local fire departments and 2) the fact that they were not dredged last winter. We really pushed that this was a boater safety issue. We all need to remember that navigation is not a criteria defined by the Suffolk County Dredge Screening Committee as an appropriate reason to support the dredging of a creek interface. While myself and many others feel that navigation should be one of the criteria used, the fact is that it is not. With the help of our elected officials, the representatives of the Army Corp and NYDOS took appropriate action and released these one time permits. They run out on May 31, 2008.
I am once again pleased that we were able to obtain these necessary permits to get the job done. Please understand that the Trustees have already sent a letter to SCDPW to begin the work of obtaining the necessary permits and permission to dredge some of our creeks this coming season. I will continue to spearhead this project.
Dave Bergen
Again, my thanks to Dave Bergen and the other individuals and organizations involved in getting the spring dredging accomplished. While I can not object to “the presence of marinas, fuel docks and launching ramps used by local fire departments” as a reason for dredging James and Wickham Creeks, I would like to know what the existing “criteria defined by the Suffolk County Dredge Screening Committee as an appropriate reason to support the dredging of a creek interface” are, and how they presently apply to dredging [fall or spring] of creeks that do not have “marinas, fuel docks and launching ramps”? Do the criteria need to be changed?! How might that be accomplished? I seem to remember that “our” LWRP deals positively with “maintenance dredging”.
Dan Christianson
Dan,
I will try to answer your questions. The criteria which the Suffolk County Dredge Screening Committee uses to determine creek interfaces which are eligible to be dredged by the County dates back to 1979, but was amended in 1986 , then updated in 2006. There were 10 criteria used to determine if a creek was eligible up until 2006 when “environmental” reasons were added. The original 10 were, and I am editing for the purpose of space:
So as you can see, the criteria is not limited to creeks with marinas. It was determined that all dredging would take place from around October first to mid-January due to concerns for either protected birds or winter flounder. The agencies made it very clear back in April 2006 that these limited windows could not be amended. Fast forward to this past winter when the window ran out and the rig had not gotten to all of the creeks which required dredging in the five east end towns. I lobbied very hard for three extra days for Wickham creek but my request was turned down by the DEC. Yet, the DEC opened the door a crack by saying that they would consider a brief two week window around the end of May for creeks which they could not get to by last January 15. It was made very clear to me last week that the approval by the Army Corp and Dept. of State was going to be limited to James and Wickham Creek.
So how can the windows be changed? That is an excellent question. While the Town LWRP supports the windows developed by the State, the DOS has made it clear that even if the Town amends our LWRP, they will not amend the windows on the State level. The State works under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. We still need to realize that the Feds have established windows based upon the needs of the protected birds and winter flounder which they have shown no indication that they will move on as these are set under a Federal Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act.
I am not sure if I have helped you to understand these issues, or simply added to our collective confusion. The bottom line is that we need to keep the pressure on to get whatever dredging we can get done accomplished.
Dave Bergen