DREDGING THE DEPTHS: Dredge work continues on Norriego Point as city faces a ‘no-win situation'

It might not be fancy, or overly dramatic, but the two-man dredging operation on Norriego Point is effective and will clear out the navigational channel that was choked up by Tropical Storm Lee in September.

“It’s not going to be as wide or as deep as we want it,” Public Services Director Steve Schmidt told The Log. “Ultimately, when we do the stabilization project, we are going to move the tip over a little bit and get the channel carved out to its full width and depth.”

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE PROJECT, CLICK HERE.

Although the city is permitted to dredge the channel to its full depth of 12-feet deep and 100-feet wide, an alternative plan had to be put in place to preserve the integrity of the point. The latest plan calls for the dredge to clear out a portion of the channel to its full depth, while the remaining area would only be dredged to a depth of 5-feet.

While dredging the channel out completely would maximize the amount of time the city had until they had to clear it out again, Schmidt says it would severely erode the tip of the point. If they don’t dredge enough, they would more than likely have to come back and dredge again in less than a year.

“At this point we are between a rock and a hard place,” Schmidt said. “We are damned if we do, damned if we don’t — it’s a no-win situation.”

And while the dredge is not the final answer to keeping the mouth of the harbor clear, Mayor Sam Seevers says it was absolutely necessary as even a small rainstorm could have choked off the harbor completely.

“We had to do something with the fishing rodeo going on,” she said.

All told, the dredge will move about 7,000-cubic-yards of sand that will be taken from the channel and placed on a city owned right-of-way on Point One’s property on Norriego Point, which was a point of contention for Councilman Jim Bagby who wanted the city to get a signed legal document saying the sand was in fact property of the city. His motion failed 5-2.

In the past, the city placed sand on an area known as parcel B and had to fight with the property owners to retrieve the sand that they had placed on the property. 

Ideally, the sand would be used to help stabilize and extend the point, but it cannot be placed on submerged lands without proper permits. So, for now, the sand will sit and wait until it can be used for a future project.

The dredge work is expected to cost the city about $30,000, which will come directly out of the city’s pocket since they don’t have any opportunities for grant funding currently.

“We are hoping to get reimbursed; that’s what we are exploring,” Schmidt said. “It’s just a little harder to do it after the fact.”

The dredging is expected to continue through the weekend and Schmidt said the project might be completed as early as Sunday.