Dear Editor,
The bayfront dredge project is totally out of touch with environmental and economic reality.
The $800,000 consultants’ fee, which is very costly, was well spent if only its findings were objectively analyzed. Instead, the city responds with the dredge goal being to “go tip to tip,” knowing “it’s going to cost a lot of money.”
- 542,000 cubic yards is a previous estimate of the total amount of dredge spoils that need to be removed.
- 8,600 cubic yards can go under the Ninth Street Bridge.
- 50,000 cubic yards are being trucked to Wildwood, costing O.C. taxpayers $2.7 million just to free up space for more dredging.
This leaves 483,400 cubic with no site in sight, and a recent survey suggesting that post-Sandy it is probably 50 percent more spoils than that (720,000 cubic yards).
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Ocean City politicians are trying to contact NASA. Dumping the dredged material on the moon or Mars is not beyond our local politicians’ ambitions and budget.
- $938,000 approved to dredge the lagoon between Eighth and Ninth streets.
The impending approval of a 1,300-foot road to truck spoils from Roosevelt Boulevard to Site 83. Cost not mentioned and clearly not an issue for the pols using public dollars.
And for the grand finale a plan to spray dredge spoils over the wetlands. This assumes that the laws of nature don’t apply as sea level is rising and the wetlands will soon be under the ocean. Fortunately, Ocean City has been exempted from all this somehow.
Yachters certainly have a powerful influence on our politicians beyond comprehension.
As sea level rises, the apathy of the Ocean City politicians is revealed by their indifference to B.L. England’s plan to burn fracked gas 24/7. This will emit more greenhouse gases than when coal was burning full blast.
Maybe it’s all part of their plan to submerge Ocean City and all coastal cities. This will give the yachters unlimited access and they will become the 21st century version of the biblical Noah.
Sincerely yours,
Steven Fenichel, MD
