Maryland and federal officials on Tuesday signed a new $4 billion agreement to restore the mid-Chesapeake Bay ecosystem using sediment dredged from the Port of Baltimore and the Honga River.
Col. Estee Pinchasin, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore District commander, and Maryland Department of Transporation Secretary James F. Ports Jr. signed a Project Partnership Agreement for reusing dredged sediment to restore the James and Barren islands in Dorchester County.
The project will involve restoring aquatic vegetation, mudflats, marshes, islands, ponds, channels, and upland areas on 2,072 acres of lost remote island habitat at James Island and 72 acres of remote island habitat at Barren Island.
Ports said in a statement that Tuesday’s agreement means “‘all systems go’ for this critically important project that will provide so many environmental benefits for Maryland.”
“Rebuilding James and Barren islands will promote wildlife, restore coastal shorelines, and provide us with a long-term placement site for dredged material from port shipping channels, allowing us to accommodate larger ships bringing more cargo and business to Maryland,” he said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredges about five million cubic yards of material annually from the Port of Baltimore’s channels and anchorages, which “must be contained or disposed of in an environmentally conscious manner,” officials said.
Dredging is done to “maintain current depths and widths for safe navigation,” they said.
The new agreement will increase the capacity for placing dredged sediment and use that material to benefit the Chesapeake Bay, said William P. Doyle, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration-Port of Baltimore.
“The Mid-Bay project is the next frontier for coastal and island restoration,” Doyle said in a statement. “It will give us dredged sediment placement capacity for 30 years and strengthen the shoreline of Dorchester County.”
An earlier project used dredged material to restore the habitat at Poplar Island in Talbot County. Construction to expand that project was completed in January 2021.
Now, that island is “flourishing,” Pinchasin said.
“We are proud to partner again with the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Port Administration and employ innovative solutions that benefit the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem today and will do so for generations to come,” she said.
The expansion effort increased the island’s capacity for material dredged from the Port of Baltimore approach channels through 2032.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received more than $80 million through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to be used for design and preconstruction in this project.
Officials expect to award the first contract for phase one of the Barren Island restoration “in the coming weeks.”
Crews will build infrastructure to hold the dredged material at each location. Afterwards, dredged material could begin arriving at the Barren Island project as early as 2024, and at the James Island project in 2030.
The agencies expect the mid-Chesapeake Bay restoration project to be completed in 2067, by which point nearly 100 million cubic yards of dredged material will have been placed.
