Dillingham Dredging Program Begins

An annual dredging program at the Dillingham small boat harbor is set to begin this week, reports KDLG – Public Radio for Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

Every year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with pumping a slurry of mud and water out of the harbor and back into the bay. On average, dredgers remove 90,000 cubic yards of muck.

According to Dillingham port director, Jean Barrett, the quantity will be slightly greater this year.

“I’m guessing somewhere around 110,000 cubic yards. It looks to be a little fuller than it was last year, and we did just under 100,000 last year,” said Barrett.

The ramps, arms and floating docks will start going into the harbor as early as next week, KDLG informs.

“Once they get the south end of the harbor dredged out where we can put our floats in and the ramps in, then they’ll be able to use that end,” said Barrett. “People can use the harbor when the dredge is in there also. Just we need to makes sure that everyone is following rules and being careful.”

It is expected that the project will take about three weeks to complete.

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