Melinda Tuhus Photo
East Shore neighbors delivered an unmistakable message to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about a plan to dredge Bridgeport Harbor and dump the material in New Haven: “Don’t dump on us!”
Some 80 neighbors delivered the message at a meeting Thursday night at Nathan Hale School.
Pictured is Charlotte Buterbaugh, who was there with her outspoken mother, Claudia Bosch, and brother, Lukas Bosch. Lukas said he hopes he would still be able to swim if the project goes through. He was assured he could.
The Army Corps of Engineers proposes to dredge Bridgeport Harbor — for the first time since 1964 — to keep the navigation channel open. It wants to dump 197,000 cubic yards of the removed dirt in a hole, called a borrow pit, in New Haven Harbor off Morris Cove, near the sea wall.
The hole, or trench, was created half a century ago when the area was excavated to create fill for the construction of I‑95.
Project manager Michael Keegan explained, before the meeting began, how it would work: “When completed, the borrow pit, instead of being a hole, will be pretty much level with the surrounding area, and will be shellfish habitat.” The process is called confined aquatic disposal, or CAD.
Keegan (pictured) said the Corps favors this plan because it meets environmental standards, is feasible to implement, and, at $44 million, is almost $9 million cheaper than the alternative, which is to dump the material closer to the dredging site.
The dredged material will be capped with clean fill. He said tests of similar work in Boston harbor and elsewhere have shown the dredged material will not escape the pit and is less polluted than what’s already there.
Keegan repeatedly explained that tests show the existing sediment in Morris Cove is more toxic than the proposed fill from Bridgeport. But neighbors weren’t buying it. They said they fear if the project goes forward it will contaminate the water where people swim and fish. Bosch and others also said they worry it could lead to groundwater infiltration and flooding of their homes. Others said the work would go right through existing oyster beds.
One of the slides Keegan presented showed that of several chemical contaminants, the levels are higher in New Haven Harbor than they are in Bridgeport Harbor, except for nickel and mercury.
Some neighbors commented that they don’t trust the government (i.e., the Corps of Engineers) to represent their best interests. Morris Cove Alderwoman Arlene DePino said she found out through some staffers at the City Plan Department about the meeting; she said she should have been notified directly. She and fellow East Shore Alderman Al Paolillo notified their constituents. “Otherwise, no one would have been at this meeting,” she said.
Christoph Rahner (pictured) asked why only a partial list of contaminants made it into the PowerPoint slide. He asked specifically about carcinogens like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Keegan, as he did throughout the Q&A session, referred people to the Corps’s website for project details. (Click on Projects, scroll to Bridgeport.) One neighbor responded that, as a person without technical or scientific background, he would not find it helpful to peruse the website. Some meeting-goers suggested the Corps was hiding something.
Tina Doyle, president of the East Shore Neighborhood Association, said the hole’s been there for 50 years. Leave well enough alone, she said.
“It’s kind of status quo at this point,” she said. “Why, all of a sudden, do we need to have the trench filled in with debris from Bridgeport Harbor?”
Keegan noted several times, “This is not a done deal,” though clearly most of those in the room worried it was being rammed down their throats. Keegan said people could write letters to the Corps and to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) expressing their concerns. “At this stage, this is a draft report, and we look at every letter.” He added that the project still must win permit approval from the DEP, and the Corps has more work to do. “We are doing a dredge material management plan and an environmental assessment.” Then it will go out to bid.
And then it will wait for money. Congress has not allocated any money yet, though 75 percent must come from the feds. The rest must come from a non-federal source, like the state or the city of Bridgeport.
At one point, Keegan began, “We are trying to accommodate…” Before he could get any further, the crowd shouted, “Bridgeport!”
Harbormaster Michael Pimer (pictured) said he’d spent most of his 72 years on and in the harbor. “I have been in that hole,” he said. “There is so much silt there. It’s a bad situation all the way around. I would like to see Plan B, not Plan A. New Haven Harbor does not need any more dumped into it. And if you do your homework you’ll find there are three more holes” in the vicinity.
“Don’t tell him!” yelled a woman in the audience.
In the Corps’ defense, Pimer said it has pinpoint accuracy in dumping where it says it will dump. Then he added, “But I don’t want them to dump on us!”
The issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the East Shore Neighborhood Association on April 13 at 7 p.m. at the Morris Cove fire station, Townsend Avenue and Lighthouse Road.