Sen. Graham tours the Crab Bank site

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday visited the Town of Mount Pleasant to discuss the recent agreement between the Army Corps’ Charleston District, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), and representatives of the town about the placement of dredged material for the Crab Bank Restoration project.

Following through on earlier commitments to re-evaluate before construction, the Corps’ recent data collection and discussions with their dredging contractor revealed that the planned construction methods would benefit from an adjusted footprint that is shifted substantially to the southeast.

This adjusted footprint will allow the contractor to take advantage of more areas of existing shallow water to begin their work and also addresses the Town’s concerns by placing dredged materials further to the southeast, shifting the edge of the footprint approximately 1,400 feet further away from the mouth of Shem Creek compared to the previous plan.

Construction activity for this Beneficial Use of Dredged Material project using compatible material from the Charleston Harbor Deepening “Post 45” project is expected to begin in September and should only take a couple of months to complete.

The restoration project is sponsored by the SCDNR and calls for the one-time placement of approximately 660,000 cubic yards of compatible material from the deepened channel.

When finished, the project will create approximately 28 acres of critical nesting habitat for highly threatened populations of shorebirds that make the Lowcountry their home and delight visitors to this beautiful community and Shem Creek.