Fed dredging to go the full 15 feet deep

Triplicate file photo

An extra $2.25 million in appropriations has brought the current amount of money in the corps’ coffers for dredging Crescent City to $4.35 million, which officials say should be enough to dredge both the inner basin channel and the access channel to a depth of 15 feet by September.

This is despite an earlier estimate that it would only be able to dredge to 10 feet, which Harbormaster Richard Young said previously wasn’t  enough because it didn’t satisfy federal channel design requirements and wasn’t deep enough for some of the boats in the harbor.

 “The corps is looking at how much it would cost to finish the full federal channel next year,” Young said Friday.

Before any corps dredging can begin, testing of the sediment in the federal channel needs to be done.

“There are some things that need to be done first,” said Harbor Commissioner Scott Feller. “We gave them our grain size tests, but they have additional testing that they are going to start in June.”

The corps will be testing grain size June 1, and testing for biological contaminants at the end of June.

At that point a decision can be made  about where the sediment will be shipped.

“If the grain size is large enough it can be taken to Whaler Island,” Young has said. “Otherwise it will need to go somewhere else, which costs more money.”

Sediment taken to Whaler Island would eventually end up nourishing South Beach, Feller said.

Other options for where sediment can be delivered are the harbor dredge ponds, but only after Sept. 1, and two ocean disposal locations.

The two ocean locations are 60 miles off the coast of Humboldt County and 20 miles off the mouth of the Chetco River in Curry County, Ore.

Both are more expensive options than Whaler Island or the harbor dredge ponds, because they require longer transportation distances. The Chetco River site requires different permitting because it is in Oregon and a separate corps district.

The corps project is separate from the two other harbor dredging projects.

One of those, dredging the mouth of the inner boat basin, was scheduled to begin this month and is waiting for a final dredging plan to be drawn up.