Mattituck Inlet dredging project geared to improve navigation for boaters

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will spend $3 million to improve navigation in Mattituck Inlet. 

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said dredging in the 2-mile channel is a crucial maintenance project needed to remove sand and sediment buildup in the area and keep the channel navigable for boaters. The project will ensure the waterway is at least 7 feet deep at low tide, officials said.

Mattituck Inlet is the only harbor on the North Shore between Port Jefferson and Greenport and is a harbor of refuge during storms. There is a federal anchorage and several marinas in the harbor.

“It’s very shallow. If you had a larger boat that needed to seek safety, it could have a problem getting in,” Krupski said Thursday.

Dredging will start Oct. 1 and is expected to finish in November, officials said. Seacoast Construction, a West Sayville marine contracting company, will complete the work.

Jeff Strong, who owns two marinas in the inlet, said dredging is beneficial for recreational boaters and commercial fishermen who rely on the channel for their livelihoods.

“If they can’t [get in and out,] it can become an economic loss,” Strong said, adding the inlet attracts boaters from across the tristate area and boosts tourism by visiting area shops, restaurants and wineries.

Phil Karlin, of Riverhead, is one of more than a dozen commercial fishermen who operates out of the inlet.

“Right now at low tide, for the size boats that are going out of the inlet it’s not too bad yet,” Karlin, 83, who operates a 40-foot fishing boat,  said. “But if something isn’t done, over the winter time it starts shoaling up more.”

Crews will remove 9,985 cubic yards of sediment from the harbor, officials said. The dredge spoils will be taken by barge to the Beneficial Dredge Facility in Staten Island for processing and then used for landfill cover material in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to Army Corps spokesman James D’Ambrosio.

Others said that while dredging is overdue, the current project does not address sand buildup at the mouth of the inlet from Long Island Sound.

Kevin Byrne, the commissioner of the Mattituck Park District, said sand has built up along the edge of a jetty at Breakwater Beach.

The park district owns two soundfront beaches on either side of the inlet.

Byrne, 75, said the buildup of sand has accelerated erosion at the eastern Bailie Beach and is easily mistaken by beachgoers as a swimming area.

“If you swim in that inlet at the wrong time of day, your next stop is Connecticut,” he said. “It’s not safe, especially when the tide is moving out from the inlet.”

Park district officials also worry the area could be breached during a storm.

The mouth of the channel was last dredged in 2014, according to Army Corps documents.

D’Ambrosio said the Army Corps lacks funds to comply with requirements to use dredged sand in that area to replenish Bailie Beach, but may pursue the project in the future.