Dredging Moriches Bay

There have been a bunch of inlets between Moriches and Fire Island over the centuries. One way of telling is to look for marsh islands in the bay. They are remnants of islands formed when inlets existed. There was an inlet at Old Inlet. I believe it filled in in the 1800's when a ship sank in it. A good hurricane will open another inlet in that area. There have been overwashes there almost every winter for the past 3 or 4 years. Any inlet that does form will be unlikely to last as the bay is very shallow. One of the factors you need for an inlet to remain is a deepish water on the bay side. Old Inlet is in the Wilderness Area of Fire Island National Seashore. This will likely preclude any filling of the inlet by the Army Corps. It is a topic of discussion betweent the Corps and the Park Service. Despite all the dire predictions of beach homeowners about mainland flooding if new inlets open up very little flooding resulted from Little Pikes Inlet when it formed east of Moriches Inlet. There was a small increase in the tidal range in Moriches Bay. The effect stopped east of Smith's Point, not even making it to Bellport Bay. If you think about it, ever time they dregde an inlet they increase tidal flow and in theory increase potential for flooding because of the increase in the cross-sectional area of the inlet. No one ever says that its going to adversely impact the mainland though.

Doctorfish: This is from a South Shore Estuary Reserve Document:

The plant was built in 1951 and updated in 1987. Currently, it operates under the terms of a permit addressing fifteen parameters. From 1990 to 1995, exceedences occurred for five of these parameters, as follows: total suspended solids, with two exceedences; settleable solids with one exceedence; total residual chlorine, with twenty exceedences; BOD, 5-day percent removal, with two exceedences; and suspended solids percent removal, with fourteen exceedences. All chlorine, settleable solids, and BOD exceedences occurred in 1990, as did all but two of the suspended solids exceedences. Thus, the only more recent exceedences are two each for total suspended solids and solids removal.

From 1997 through 1999, there were exceedences of five parameters. On two occasions, the pH readings, at 5.6 and 5.8, fell below the permit minimum of 6.0 On one occasion, total suspended solids levels grossly exceeded permit levels, with a 30 day average load of 282 lbs/day versus the permit level of 125, a 7 day average loading of 518 lbs versus a permit level of 188, and comparable exceedences of the concentrations permitted. Settleable solids levels also exceeded the 0.3 ml/l permit level on three occasions, with readings of 0.5, 0.8, and 0.9 ml/l. On two occasions, the 45% suspended solids removal level was not reached, with solids removal only reaching 22.7 and 41 per cent. Finally, on one occasion the carbonaceous oxygen demand removal rate of 73.5% was not reached, achieving only a 65.7% reduction.