The tidal harbor is home to what is billed as the largest charter fleet in New England with 14 affiliated large vessels, several independent ones, a small commercial fishing fleet and recreational vessels.
That costs about $7 per cubic yard compared with $40 a cubic yard for mechanical dredging with a clamshell bucket, Eastham Department of Public Works Superintendent Neil Andres estimated, based on other jobs being done around the Cape. In the past, the dredge material could be pumped hydraulically from the channel onto the beach, the cheapest excavation technique in which the bottom material is sucked up and mixed with water to form a slurry that moves easily through a pipeline. Acting on complaints from nearby property owners, the Eastham Conservation Commission also ruled recently that no dredge spoils could be placed there. These dredge spoils dried out over time and were either spread out over the beach or used to fill in other eroding beaches in town.īut that beach is now part of an officially designated Inner Cape Cod Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern, stretching from Eastham to Brewster, with strict regulations protecting areas vital to fisheries, flood control, storm damage prevention and other issues covered by the Wetlands Protection Act. The difference between now and then is that 10 years ago, the dredged muck and sand could be deposited within a few hundred feet or less of the harbor on a strip of beach owned by Eastham. "The sticker shock was enough to make people's eyes pop out of their skulls," Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber said. But last week, a dredge consultant informed both towns that the latest estimate was $1.7 million to dredge 30,000 cubic yards. That was a far cry from the $150,000 price tag a decade ago when the harbor channels and marina slips were last cleaned out. ORLEANS - If it were a Christmas present, it would have been as downheartedly disappointing as a big lump of coal.Įastham and Orleans town officials already had estimated that it might cost $1.2 million to dredge Rock Harbor.
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