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Saturday, September 02, 2017

Inlet buoys could be moved to reduce boat damage risk

Since June’s Maryland Municipal League conference, government officials and private interests have gathered on three occasions to work on the shoaling problem in the Ocean City Inlet, which has been increasingly difficult to navigate in recent years.

The first answer, delivered about two years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers, was a comprehensive study of the inlet area to determine, and possibly suggest action to prevent boats from running aground at Maryland’s only ocean port.

That study was deemed too complex and time consuming to carry out, and the scope has since been shifted to a large “scour hole” near Gudelsky Park, formerly known as Stinky Beach, with a result expected in 2019.

But now, circumstances appear to have changed again, as the promised action and regular dredging have not yet provided a permanent, sustainable solution to prevent damage to commercial and recreational watercraft.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mother Nature has been fighting to reclaim that inlet, ever since it was temporarily created by a storm in 1933. And Mother Nature will continued to do so until humans quit trying to avoid the inevitable, or the humans are gone. The inlet is now an artificial one, maintained by man. The shoaling is just Mother Nature trying to fill it back in, as would be natural, and the way it should be. But big money has a way with government and the ones who reap the big money. They will do everything in their power, including spending mass sums of the citizens money, to maintain the status quo. I'd be happy if OC was still accessible only by boat or rail, like it was before the '33 storm. Nothing that would be lost, would be anything I would miss.