Dredging on Jones Inlet due to start in October

Contractors will begin dredging Jones Inlet off the coast of Point Lookout starting next month after local and state officials have long demanded the work to improve boater safety.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Long Island elected officials, including Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), and Hempstead Town Supervisor Donald Clavin, a Republican, have been calling for the dredging for the past two years as the channel has filled in with sand and other sediment.

Officials said there have been boating accidents and drownings in the channel due to shallow waters.

Schumer announced that work is set to begin in early October and is expected to take about 45 days, weather permitting, in order to avoid the height of hurricane season and the nesting period of the endangered piping plover birds, which runs from about May to September.

“After much hard work to secure the funding, I’m proud to announce that the Army Corps of Engineers awarded the contract to dredge Jones Inlet, with dredging beginning in early October,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “I appreciate the Army Corps of Engineers’ New York District for working diligently to get dredging started as well as Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound for securing public safety throughout Long Island’s waterways.”

The Army Corps awarded the Chesapeake, Virginia, firm Norfolk Dredging Company a $17 million contract for dredging the inlet, expected to be completed about Nov. 15.

There are only about five contractors in the country able to do the work and Jones Inlet competed for priority with other projects, Army Corps spokesman James D’Ambrosio said.

The 2.3-mile long channel will be dredged to maintain it at 12 feet deep and 250 feet wide, from the deep water of the Atlantic Ocean to Long Creek under the Loop Parkway bridge.

The inlet was last dredged eight years ago to remove 665,000 cubic feet of sand, which was repurposed on the Point Lookout shoreline.

The Army Corps of Engineers maintains the federal waterway, which serves 10 commercial marinas on the South Shore and also serves the Jones Beach Coast Guard station. The channel is also used by commercial fishing and shipping traffic, which has previously transported up to 10,000 tons of fuel oil annually. 

An Oceanside charter fishing boat captain, John McMurray, said he has had to cancel several trips through the inlet due to shallow waters and high storm swells. In 2020, his boat was on a sandbar when he was struck by a wave, tearing his biceps and nearly sinking his boat. 

“I’m glad they’re finally doing it and some promises are actually kept. This should have been done a long time ago,” McMurray said. “It’s incredibly dangerous going in and out. It’s too shallow and hard to stay in deep water. The bottom is always shifting around there.”

Freeport Mayor Robert T. Kennedy, a  captain licensed by the Coast Guard, said he has entered Jones Inlet several times while the depth was less than 5 feet. He said he has to go a mile out of his way to move through the inlet.

“It’s in exceptionally poor conditions right now,” Kennedy said. “It really needs to be dredged because many boats can’t get into the Atlantic and back. it’s unsafe and someone could get injured or drown getting out of the channel. It’s been precarious.”

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.