Federal Budget Includes Inlet Dredge Funding

OCEAN CITY – The Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District this week announced it was receiving an additional $68 million in federal funding for critical navigation projects across the region including a boost in funding for the continued maintenance dredging of the Ocean City Inlet.

The funding is being provided to the Army Corps of Engineers-Baltimore District through the Trump Administration’s proposed fiscal year 2020 federal budget. The funding announced last week includes roughly $1.1 million for operation and maintenance of the Inlet and navigation channels in the Sinepuxent Bay and $600,000 for Assateague Island bypass operations, in which the dredged sand is beneficially placed immediately south of the inlet along Assateague Island to mitigate the impacts of sediment transport and erosion caused by the Ocean City Inlet and its jetties. Previously, the Assateague Island Restoration project was funded as a separate project by Congress through construction funding.

The Inlet and other channels in and around the commercial harbor naturally fill in and are in constant need of maintenance dredging, but the problem has become more acute in recent years to the point the Inlet is often impassable and unnavigable for larger vessels on even the highest of tides. While maintenance dredging will continue thanks in large part to the supplementary funding announced this week, local, state and federal officials have been exploring a long-term solution including dredging the Inlet channel to a greater depth and possibly even a reconfiguration of the jetties or a relocation of the channel.

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