County calls on Army Corps to dredge Ocean City Inlet before White Marlin Open
Worcester County officials are pressing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform emergency dredging at the Ocean City inlet ahead of the White Marlin Open.
“It is critical that these boats are able to get through the inlet. That ability is in jeopardy unless summer dredging occurs,” County Commissioners President Ted Elder wrote in a May 27 letter to the Army Corps’ Baltimore office.
There’s urgency here because the usual dredge vessels, the Murden and Currituck, will be unavailable to clear sediment ahead of the Aug. 4-8 fishing tournament, leaving county leaders looking for other options.
The Murden is in drydock and won’t be available until July, while the Currituck is currently out of service, according to Bob Mitchell, the county’s director of environmental programs.
He said the Army Corps’ Baltimore District will make an emergency request to the Wilmington District to schedule the use of the sidecaster dredge Merritt to clear sediment before the White Marlin Open.
More frequent inlet dredging is crucial to keep ahead of shoaling and erosion, which has only gotten worse since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Mitchell told county officials in a May 12 internal memo.
He stressed to the County Commissioners that they must explain “the seriousness of the situation here in the inlet” to the Army Corps, and emphasized the need for another maintenance dredging pass before the White Marlin Open.
“This dredging event not only benefits our tournament visitors,” Mitchell wrote, “but the dredge visit also provides a measure of safety with sediment removal accommodating the vessel drafts for our commercial fishing fleet as well.”