Southold Town Trustee Dredging Priority List 2010
At the July 21 Town Trustees meeting, Dave Bergen reported the following wish list for Suffolk County dredging. Note that neither Wickham or West Creek has permits in place so it is doubtful that they will have permits in time for the dredging window. Also remember that Southold is only one of 5 towns submitting wish lists to the County so in all likelihood only a few of the 10 will get dredged this year.
Volunteers needed for Horseshoe Crab monitoring
Volunteers are needed to collect data on mating horseshoe crabs for the 4 days on and near the full moon, June 18, and the new and full moons in July.
Dr. John Tanacredi of Dowling College is organizing a collection of data in order to know the numbers of this species. They are harvested for bait
and for medical purposes. Data from Maryland and New Jersey indicate that numbers are way down and those states are regulating the harvest in order to protect the species. Currently in New York State, here in Peconic Bay and in Long Island Sound people are allowed to take 200 crabs per day.
Dredging – the video
Get your popcorn, turn off the lights, and watch SoutholdVOICE’s first full length (5 minute) feature video.
Dredge Permit Correction
In our December Newsletter, we reported that the dredge permits for Schoolhouse Creek and Wickham Creek have now been released. We now understand that only the permit for Schoolhouse Creek was issued and that Wickham Creek is still outstanding at this time.
More Dredge Permits Released
I am pleased to report that the Army Corp released permits for Jockey Creek Spur, Corey, Goose and James this week. This leaves us only School House Creek which is lacking a permit. Once the rig gets done in Southampton, SCDPW and I will confer with regards to which Southold creek they go to next. Corey Creek has a window limit of December 15 while the others have a limit of January 15. I passed this information onto both Senator Clinton and Congressman Bishops’s office, thanking them once again for their assistance.
I will keep you posted.
Dave Bergen
Dredging Liaison Report
Southold Town’s Dredge committee met at Town Hall on Tues Oct 16. It was run by Chairman Eugene Burger, attending were Chris Showalter, Rob Lehnert, Pete McGreevy, and Town Trustee Dave Bergen.
They have begun an inventory of all the town creeks with pictures, littoral drift info, and summary reports as to navigation impediments, etc. This committee will also gather information for …. Read More
Drifting Responsibilities
Submitted by Tom Gleason.
Related to dredging clogged up creeks and waterways, is the issue of erosion mediation using the spoils from the dredging process. The shore line between Schoolhouse Creek and Wickhams Creek is one of many examples of the problem. The standing DEC policies stating spoils can not be deposited upstream of the littoral drift and the policy of banning new groins/jetties all but closes the door on a practical solution. Read More
Dredging Progress Despite Bureaucratic Snarls
It appears that about 15 projects will be able to be completed in the approaching dredging season – Oct. 1 to Jan. 15 – but not the 20 to 25 the county used to do annually.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended in April that the county submit one application for all the projects around Peconic Bay rather than individual ones as in the past.
The Army Corps of Engineers sent a letter to Fish and Wildlife rejecting its suggestion, but Fish and Wildlife’s regional office never forwarded the letter to the local office that was dealing with the permit applications. That was not known until a conference call last Tuesday, said Bill Hillman, chief engineer for the Suffolk Department of Public Works.
The Corps now hopes to begin issuing permits by the end of this month. That should allow 15 projects – selected on a basis of need and proximity to other projects – to go forward this fall and winter.These projects were provided to SoutholdVOICE readers by Southold Trustee David Bergen. See his post on these pages for the background on how they were selected.
Read More
Army Corps Response to Congressional Letter
David Bergen, Southold Town Trustee, writes:
The Army Corp responded last week in writing to the [congressional] letter. They included two items in their response. First, they provided a response to US Fish and Wildlife to their required Endangered Species Habitat report. We now are waiting for a response from USF&W to this letter. Second, they provided an updated flow chart on the AC permit process for the creeks in Southold, East Hampton, Southampton and Riverhead with pending permit applications. This information was very helpful.