Ocean City Dredging Work Targets Sediment-Clogged Lagoons

Ocean City’s dredging contractor is ready to clear out some of the worst sediment-choked lagoons along the back bays – one muddy scoop at a time.

Scarborough Marine Group, based in Marmora, has been awarded an $820,000 contract by the city to dredge Snug Harbor, Sunny Harbor and some smaller outfall areas.

Sean Scarborough, who co-owns Scarborough Marine with his brother, Todd, said the company expects to begin dredging during the first or second week of November and finish by the end of December.

Altogether, 11,000 cubic yards of gooey mud and muck will be excavated from the bottom of Snug Harbor and Sunny Harbor to deepen the small lagoons so that bayside homeowners can use their boats without getting stuck during low tide.

Mayor Jay Gillian has repeatedly said that the dredging projects will have far-reaching effects on the city by improving the waterways for local boaters, helping the marinas, increasing bayfront property values and making the lagoons safer for swimming.

“Our bayside dredging program is always a big thing in Ocean City that benefits everybody, even if you don’t live on the bay or lagoons,” Gillian said during a town hall meeting with local residents on Oct. 19.

An excavator sitting on top of a floating barge will use its metal claw to remove the sediment one scoop at a time, a process known as mechanical dredging. The sediment will be then placed in large metal containers, called “hoppers,” for temporary storage.

    An excavator digs an underwater "sediment trap" at the mouth of Snug Harbor during an earlier round of dredging in 2024.
  

Instead of simply taking the dredge spoils to a disposal site, the material will be transported by trucks to a nursery in Corbin City to replenish the soil there – effectively reusing the sediment to help grow new trees instead of letting it going to waste, Scarborough said.

Scarborough noted that his company has routinely taken the sediment to Surran’s Nursery for other dredging projects it has done for Ocean City, other municipalities and private homeowners.

“The mud we dredge will literally end up on a farm in Corbin City for soil replenishment,” he said.

Once Scarborough Marine finishes the contract for Ocean City, it will be ready to begin dredging the docks and boat slips for private homeowners in town. That work will be done under separate contracts with homeowners and will not be part of the city’s work.

However, Ocean City homeowners will be able to piggyback on the city’s dredging permit to have sediment removed from their boat slips, something that will save them from the hassle and cost of securing individual permits, Scarborough pointed out.

Scarborough Marine is currently lining up jobs for private dredging. Homeowners wanting to contact the company can speak to Scarborough’s Katie Newkirk at (609) 904-5444.

For Ocean City, the dredging of shallow lagoons and channels along the back bays is an annual maintenance project costing millions of dollars. Each year, the city targets different lagoons for dredging.

    Owner Sean Scarborough, center, and other members of Scarborough Marine Group check out some of the dredging equipment.
  

Snug Harbor, a quaint lagoon off Bay Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets, has experienced a chronic buildup of sediment over the years. It is a location that requires repeated dredging by the city to make it deep enough for bayfront homeowners to enjoy their boats.

Hoping to find a longer-term solution to the constant dredging of lagoons and channels, the city is experimenting with an underwater “sediment trap” to reduce the amount of silt buildup.

The sediment trap is a groundbreaking concept that is a first in New Jersey. The idea is pretty simple: For accumulating silt to fill the hole outside the lagoon and not the lagoon itself.

Scarborough Marine dug the sediment trap early this year at the mouth of Snug Harbor. The dimensions of the sediment trap are 340 feet long by 170 feet wide and 12 feet deep. Essentially, it is a large hole dug in the bottom of the channel that captures the flowing sediment in the bay.

Until the latest round of dredging in Snug Harbor is finished late this year, the lagoon will be like “a half-baked cake,” Scarborough said in a colorful description.

During his remarks at the Oct. 19 town hall meeting, Gillian emphasized that city officials are hopeful that the sediment trap succeeds in preventing silt from building up in Snug Harbor. If it does, the city plans to use it as a model for dredging projects in other lagoons to save money.

“The idea is that the mud will just keep filling that hole, rather than filling the lagoon. It’s an experiment, so it will take a couple of years of testing it. But hopefully, that will work. If it does work at Snug Harbor, we’ll end up doing it at the other street ends,” Gillian said.

    Snug Harbor is a quaint lagoon that suffers from a chronic buildup of muddy sediment.