OCEAN CITY — Federal officials have started the process of exploring new sand reserves for Ocean City’s ongoing beach replenishment project in U.S. waters with the traditional reserves in state waters becoming exhausted.
The federal Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) last week posted a public notice it is now preparing a supplementary environmental assessment of potential sand borrow areas in federal waters to supply dredged material for Ocean City’s beach replenishment program in the future. Last fall and early winter, ACE completed the latest round of beach replenishment in Ocean City and the next replenishment in the four-year cycle, barring storms or other events that might expedite the process, is not scheduled until 2022.
However, it was learned at the finish of the last beach replenishment has exhausted the sand from nearby shoals in state waters. As a result, ACE is now embarking on supplementary environmental assessment of possible sand sources for beach replenishment in federal waters just outside the state waters boundary.
Beach replenishment began in Ocean City in 1994 through a 50-year agreement with the town, Worcester County and the state of Maryland partnering with the federal Army Corps of Engineers, which provides 50 percent of the funding for the project. Now, 24 years later, or roughly half way through the 50-year agreement, it has been determined the traditional borrow areas in shoals in state waters are becoming exhausted and new sites in federal waters are being explored.
“Long story short, the Ocean City project, which has a planning life cycle of 50 years, requires a great deal of sand for 50 years’ worth of periodic renourishments like the one we just completed last fall and winter,” said Chris Gardner of the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) Communications Office. “Ocean City is quite lucky in having vast quantities of economically-available sand for beach renourishment, but we are required, as part of environmental compliance, to ensure those areas remain suitable from time to time.”
As a result, ACE conducted an environmental impact statement in 2008 during which it evaluated four shoals in federal waters. Since it has now been 10 years since that report was prepared, ACE must now conduct the supplementary environmental assessment to ensure nothing has significantly changed.
“We’ve also finished off our third borrow area, so we should moving on to another whenever the next renourishment work takes place,” he said.
The ACE environmental impact statement prepared in 2008 forecasted the eventual depletion of sand borrow sources in state waters and identified four shoals in federal waters just outside the three-mile line as potential future sources. Among those sites identified include the Weaver Shoal, the Isle of Wight Shoal, or Shoal A, and the Bass Grounds, also known as Shoal B or the First Lump.
According to the ACE public notice authored by Civil Project Development Branch Chief Daniel Bierly, those shoals in federal waters would only be utilized if the supplementary environmental assessment determines there would be no impact on habitat or fishing activity.
“Shoal B (Bass Grounds) was determined to be unsuitable at the time because of its high value as a fishing ground,” the public notice reads. “The project has not utilized any of these offshore shoals in federal waters as borrow sources yet because sufficient sand has available from sources in nearby state waters. ACE is re-evaluating the four offshore shoals in federal waters as sand sources. Bass Grounds would not be utilized unless re-evaluation finds that its relative value as a fishing ground has declined substantially.”
