OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Worcester County Commissioners have signed a letter to be sent off to the Army Corps of Engineers. It is to request an updated study of the shoaling problem in the inlet.
Difficulty navigating the channel, mainly due to the shoaling problem has caused a lot of frustration for commercial fisherman and recreational boaters. Now, county leaders are once again looking into a future fix to that problem, and they're reaching into the past to help make it happen.
"It made sense to ask the corps, who have already started to budget and plan for this refreshment of the study to take another look at it and see what we can do again," said Bob Mitchell, Worcester County's Director of Environmental Programs.
Back in 1998, the Army Corps of Engineers performed a water resources study to look at the dynamics of the inlet. It lead to four recommended projects: dredging, improvements for island creation, habitat creation and restoration of wetlands.
25 years later though and after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the East Coast, the inlet's dynamic has changed.
"The amount of sediment that's being deposited in the inlet whether it be through the inlet itself through the ocean or from the Sinepuxent Bay or from the Northern part of the island[Assateague] just sloughing off into the inlet," said Mitchell. "Those are things at play right now that we really need to examine."
We did reach out to Worcester County Commissioners for a comment on why they approved the letter. Commissioner Eric Fiori sent WBOC a statement that in part reads:
"This is a non-binding document, but the results of a new study could drastically change directions from maintenance dredging to a permanent solution."
The new study, according to Mitchell, will entail modeling, an environmental assessment of where the sediment goes and what projects can be done. Officials hope a permanent solution proposed months ago is still on the table.
"There's a lot at play here, we're 25 years on and a lot has changed since then," said Mitchell. "Economies have been impacted, people's livelihoods have been impacted by the failure to maintain this inlet at an adequate pace."
Once the Army Corps comes back with the budget for this study, the next step will be turning to local organizations. That will include the Federal Park Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the town of Ocean City and the state of Maryland.
"We're going to look and see where we're at with this, what the budget will be and what they want to do with this refreshment," said Mitchell.