Barnstable County Dredge Program completes 30th season

The Barnstable County Dredge Program has completed its 30th season of dredging on Cape Cod, marking several significant milestones for the regional program.

Beginning in mid-September, the “Longer, Wider, Deeper” dredging project in the Popponesset Bay Approach Channel in Mashpee became the department’s largest single-season project ever, with more than 57,000 cubic yards of sand removed.

For the first time, both County dredges worked together on the three-month-long project, which also incorporated a sediment catch basin designed to capture drifting sand and slow future shoaling of the channel.

Ken Cirillo, Director of the Barnstable County Dredge Department, said: ”This season was marked by significant challenges, as well as many accomplishments. Our season began in mid-September with the department’s largest-ever single-season dredging project in the Popponesset Bay Approach Channel in Mashpee, which was successfully completed in early December. As we moved into subsequent projects, strong winds prevented the Sand Shifter from operating in Yarmouth throughout much of December, and the ‘deep freeze’ of January and February left our other dredge, the Cod Fish II, frozen in Sesuit Harbor for two weeks. In addition to weather delays, we also had to work around the annual environmental time-of-year restrictions designed to protect winter flounder, endangered shorebirds, and horseshoe crabs. Despite those challenges, we were able to complete thirteen projects in seven Cape Cod towns.”

The primary purpose of most dredging projects is to remove shoaling from navigation channels and restore them to their design depth for safe navigation. Beyond navigation, the projects provide numerous regional benefits, including rebuilding shorelines damaged by coastal storms, strengthening coastal resilience, restoring habitat for endangered shorebirds, improving water quality throughout Cape Cod’s embayments by increasing tidal flushing, and beneficially reusing dredged sand for beach nourishment and keeping our working waterfronts open for commercial fishing, recreational boating, passenger transportation, and other Blue Economy activities.

Barnstable County Administrator, Michael Dutton, said: ”For thirty years, the Barnstable County Dredge Program has demonstrated the value of regional government in action. By providing dredging services below market cost, the program has saved Cape Cod communities millions of taxpayer dollars while strengthening coastal resilience, supporting our maritime economy, improving environmental health, and helping protect the infrastructure that residents and visitors rely on every day.”