Three years after Hurricane Sandy struck the Massachusetts Island of Menemsha, flooding roadways and leaving much of the community underwater, the Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to dredge Menemsha Channel.
This will be the channel’s first dredging in more than 40 years.
The dredged material will be pumped through a pipeline along Lobsterville Road to the dunes on tribal property, where earth-moving equipment will push it into place.
Workers now have until Jan. 31 to complete the project before winter flounder begin spawning. Other environmental concerns have come into play as well. The $2.17 million project will have to avoid the anchorages in Menemsha Harbor in Chilmark, where a survey revealed an abundance of eelgrass, an aquatic plant that supports shellfish and other species. A follow-up survey will take place within a year of the project’s completion.
