Dredging the Chesapeake

From the Bay Journal

Sometime in the next quarter century, a giant new island will rise someplace in the upper Bay to hold millions of cubic yards of silt and sand dredged from shipping channels in Maryland's portion of the Bay.

The giant, new, artificial island is a key element of a new, long-term dredging plan to maintain shipping routes to the Port of Baltimore.

To meet those dredging needs, the plan includes six placement options:

--Build an artificial island in the Bay north of the Bay Bridge, which would hold 50 million -100 million cubic yards over the next quarter century. Cost to the state would be $1.50 per cubic yard.

The project - half of which would be uplands and half wetlands - is intended to provide new habitat for a variety of birds, fish, shellfish and other species. The federal government is paying about 75 percent of the restoration costs.

The project is widely supported by environmentalists, watermen and resource agencies.

Still, the creation of the new island is seen by many as a preferable alternative to continued open water placement.

Because material could be stacked high above water level, the island would affect a much smaller portion of the Bay than spreading the same amount of material directly into the water.