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Dredging put off until 2010
Once permits received, county to clean up channel in SB Harbor
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Unofficial plans to reduce the silt clogging the passage through Stony Brook Harbor before the close of 2009 have been postponed until next year while the county collects all the necessary permits.
Last spring, the county Legislature approved an overall $3.3 million bonding proposal to tackle routine dredging projects throughout the county, according to Legislator Lynne Nowick (R-St. James), whose district includes the Smithtown portion of the harbor. According to county Department of Public Works Commissioner Gil Anderson, an estimated $2 million of that sum will go toward maintenance dredging of Stony Brook Harbor.
The waterway is shared with the Town of Brookhaven, although most of the harbor lies within Smithtown bounds and includes the 108-boat-slip Smithtown Bay Yacht Club marina.
At its Nov. 10 meeting, the Smithtown Town Board authorized Supervisor Pat Vecchio to sign an agreement granting town permission to conduct the dredging. Based on recommendations from the town Department of Environment and Waterways, the board also voted against requiring the lengthy process of preparing an environmental impact statement before issuing a marine permit for the maintenance harbor dredging.
Suffolk has also received permission from the New York Department of State, and Army Corps of Engineers permission is likely to follow soon, Anderson said Monday. State Department of Environmental Conservation approval is expected by the end of the year, he added; a Brookhaven Town permit is not required.
But even were the county to have all permits in hand tomorrow, there would be insufficient time to bid out the estimated $2 million project and get the work done before the close of dredging season in mid-December, Anderson pointed out. Environmental regulations limit the local window for waterway dredging to fall and early winter to avoid boating season and to protect species native to Long Island's North Shore.
"We had initially hoped to do the work this year, but between the permits and everything else, it just didn't happen," Anderson said. "Our plan at this point is really: Get all the permits in place, go out to bid … so starting [next fall] we'll be ready to go."
The maintenance dredging focuses on Porpoise Channel in Stony Brook Harbor, which travels east from its origination near the Smithtown marina toward Stony Brook Yacht Club and boat ramp, near where the harbor meets with Long Island Sound, according to Anderson. The standard silt removal project aims to lower the channel six to seven feet, with a one-foot overdredge, maintaining boaters' access to the harbor for about another decade, the DPW chief said.
The project's delay won't be welcome news to boaters, who have complained of shoaling due to the shrinking channel. However, "at high tide people can get through" the channel, Anderson maintained.
Due to their location in the channel, Stony Brook Yacht Club members will probably have the worst go of it next summer, Anderson predicted. The project's postponement "means another year where they'll just have to wiggle their way through the channel," he said.
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