Dredge Transfer Site Proposed at Boat Ramp Sparks Some Protests

By DEIRDRE FERNANDES

By Deirdre Fernandes

The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia beach

The Lynnhaven Boat Ramp is a popular spot for fishermen and pleasure boaters.

Now, city officials are also eyeing the site, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, for use as the epicenter of Lynnhaven River dredging projects.

The proposal to put a dredge transfer station at the boat ramp has sparked protests from boaters and nearby residents, many of whom have signed an online petition and are lobbying City Council members to consider other locations. They have complained that they don’t want to compete with the additional trucks on the roads and the barge in the waterways.

“We would like to see more studies done,” said Todd Solomon, with the Shore Drive Community Coalition. “Where else they could be, I don’t know.”

Solomon said the portions of the Lynnhaven River that will be dredged are three or four miles southwest of the boat ramp and city officials should find a location that is closer to where the work is being done.

City officials said they don’t have many options.

Although dredging is a necessity in Virginia Beach, where rivers and waterways spread out like veins through the city, the city has no permanent transfer stations.

These stations allow crews to unload sand and silt from barges onto trucks, which eventually transport the spoils to a dump site.

For the dredging of the western branch of the Lynnhaven River, around the Pembroke area, the city considered four sites, including the back of Princess Anne High School, said Dan Adams, a project manager with the Beach’s public works department.

The other sites had problems, such as wetlands that would have to be disturbed and mixing 40 to 50 dump trucks a day with high school parking lot traffic, Adams said.

The city considered pumping the silt from the dredge site to the Whitehurst Borrow Pit, near Oceana Naval Air Station, but that would involve building an eight-mile pipeline at a cost of $5 million, he said.

City crews will direct traffic at the ramp and give people who are launching their boats the right-of-way, Adams said.

Grace Moran, with the Ocean Park Civic League, said that may be difficult with so many dump trucks leaving and returning every day.

“In essence, it will actually close the ramp,” Moran said.

After the city is done dredging the 75,000 cubic yards from the Lynnhaven River – which will likely take about six months – private companies will be able to use the transfer station. Residents in the Thoroughgood neighborhood want to make the channels by their homes more navigable and have asked the city to use the station. There may be as many as four other requests, according to a memo from Public Works Director Jason Cosby to City Manager Jim Spore.

For some Shore Drive residents, private projects are even more of a concern.

“Who’s watching them?” Solomon asked. “If it’s not a city dredging project, they’re not going to be keeping track of it.”

The private projects would be supervised by the city’s inspection staff, Adams said.

Councilman Jim Wood said the neighborhood’s concerns are unwarranted.

“It’s not as horrible as they say it’s going to be,” Wood said. “And we really don’t have a choice.”

Councilman Bill DeSteph said he isn’t sure the city has considered all the options. He has encouraged the city to have another meeting with residents in the coming weeks. Officials are planning at least one public meeting in March.

“What we’re going to do is put a quick gut check on everything,” DeSteph said.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com

at issue

Although dredging is a necessity in Virginia Beach, the city has no permanent transfer stations.

These stations allow crews to unload the sand and silt from barges onto trucks, which eventually transport the spoils to a dump site.

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