KENNBUNKPORT, Maine — The New England district of the Army Corps of Engineers has filed for a Natural Resources Protection Act permit with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The permit would allow the corps to dredge shoals from the 8-foot deep entrance channel of the Federal Navigation Project in the Kennebunk River.
Both Kennebunk and Kennebunkport are overseeing the process. The process is due to tentatively take place between Nov. 1 and March 31 and is estimated to cost approximately $500,000, said Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Jack Karalius.
“The joint river committees of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport came to me and said we’ve got a problem with the channel and there needs to be some removal of the sand at the mouth,” said Kennebunk Town Manager Barry Tibbetts. “They met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and they did their analysis and decided yes, they could do it.”
The navigable channel has become dangerous for commercial fishing vessels. In a news release published by the New England district of the Army Corps of Engineers reported that the shoals are “creating hazardous conditions, especially for the commercial fishing vessels that are based in the harbor.”
Read the full story at the Kennebunk Post