Canal dredge completion postponed until late 2009

The Assawoman Canal dredging project began three years ago – three years that, according to State Rep. Gerald Hocker, should have been a sufficient timeframe for the operation to be completed. Now, as the result of needing the state to purchase a second dredge and the inconvenience of the project’s spill site, the project isn’t expected to be completed until the end of this year.

“The state should have contracted the project out to a private firm in the first place, instead of trying to take it head-on,” said Hocker, who, along with Delaware Sen. George Bunting, has been adamant about getting the project back on track. “It would have been completed in less time and money, and Delaware taxpayers would be much better off, and our bays would be clean.”

The state purchased a second dredge after the project began in 2006, to replace a booster pump, which, according to Hocker, should have been rebuilt in the first place.

“That booster pump was not fixed in the off-season,” he noted, “and money allocated for dredging was taken, which, in turn, slowed down the whole project.”

As reported by WBOC-TV, the one-month extension DNREC first requested to finish the project wasn’t enough. Now, the project is expected to be put on hold until the permitted dredging season begins again in September 2009, and that will cost thousands of dollars extra.

Fortunately, however, no additional obstacles are expected to impede the project. Of the approximately 4.2 miles of canal that was to be dredged, less than a mile remains, but the Assawoman wasn’t the only area that needed help.

“There are other dredging projects that need to be done,” emphasized Hocker. Among them are waterways at Vine’s Creek and Pepper’s Creek. “The intentions of this project was to be done the Assawoman Canal and then move on to those locations by this time.”

A second hindrance of the project has come with the poor location of the spill site, which is situated on state property, near the Assawoman Wildlife refuge.

“The location is a highly-used state deer-hunting site,” Hocker pointed out. “They put a lot of workers there during the deer-hunting season, and that slowed things down.” The location has also been critiqued as being too far from the project itself, exercising more time and money that could have been saved with a closer spill site situated on private property.

Concerns now focus on landowners who have docks along the project’s easements. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, all structures along the project area – including docks – need to be removed. That regulation was not enforced several years ago, when the Corps turned the project over to the state.

The necessity of cleaner waterways is clear, Hocker noted.

“I’m a true believer that we need clean bays throughout the community,” he said, “and we won’t have them if we can’t get these canal projects done. We have to keep channels dredged, marked and boats in the channels. The results are already there – we’re seeing more fish and wildlife in the areas that have already been dredged. Even the workers are reporting this.”

Once the new Secretary of State is appointed, Hocker said he intends to meet with them, Bunting, the Corps and landowners, to inspect the areas that need to fall within the proper specs of the project.

Hocker’s said his persistence on the project – which was previously held up by legal opposition from environmental groups – comes from his own recollection of the waterways as they stood in the late 1950’s.

“We used to swim these waterways when we were younger,” he said. “In many areas, the water was well over my head. There were three wooden bridges that we could dive off, it was so deep. Since then, we’ve let it wash in and, in turn, it’s hurt the wildlife. There used to be a lot more flounder and crabs in the canals, and perch in the bay.”

Problem areas that have already been dredged, including the front of Sunset Marina and under the Route 26 bridge, have already shown vast improvements, he said.

“We should be finished with the rest of the project by September,” Hocker suggested.

While no money for the extended work is projected to come from federal funding, there will need to be additional funds for the remainder of the project.

“Bunting and I will do what we can to get the money to finish this project,” Hocker said. “We’ll eventually get there. The main thing is that the state needs to get out of the dredging business. Leave that to the companies that have the equipment and experience.”