After a two-year process, Henlopen Acres Marina dredged
A decade after it was last done, and after nearly two years of work, the Henlopen Acres Marina has been dredged. Town Manager Tom Roth said all 58 slips should now be available.
A study done in 2019 showed the marina’s sedimentation rate has nearly tripled since the 1990s – about 360 cubic yards of sediment per year entered the marina basin from 1990 to 2003; 444 cubic yards per year from 2003 to 2012; and more than 900 cubic yards per year from 2012 to 2019. The study showed the marina lost one foot of depth from 2018 to 2019 and concluded that the town would need to dredge 6,505 cubic yards of sediment to achieve four feet of clearance at low tide.
In an email April 4, Roth said it took Millville-based contractor Droney Marine Construction two weeks to do the $170,000 project, finishing March 31. There were 3,000 cubic yards of silt removed, which was taken to an Army Corps of Engineers site in Lewes, he said.
Roth said the town is still trying to figure out the depth of the water at low and high tides. The town’s permit allowed for the removal of 6,500 cubic yards, but it only removed 3,000 because of cost, he said.
“It’s not an exact science,” said Roth. “We were at one foot or less at low tide and were permitted to increase it to four feet. We concentrated on specific areas, such as the mouth of the marina, for improved access to the canal, and areas that were so heavily silted that we couldn’t rent the slips.”
It’s also unclear when Henlopen Acres will have to dredge again. Roth said some of it will depend on whether the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal is dredged. Delaware's congressional delegation announced Jan. 19 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to spend $51.5 million in fiscal year 2022 on improvements to Delaware’s ports and waterways, using funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November. Specifically, there’s $3.8 million for completing maintenance dredging in the canal, from Rehoboth Bay to Delaware Bay.
In the past, the town has tried to hold off for nine or 10 years, but it will become increasingly frequent if nothing is done in the canal, said Roth. The town will consider dredging the marina on a more regular basis when it prepares the budget in the coming months, he said.
The marina was last dredged in 2012, removing 4,000 cubic yards of spoils at a cost of $200,000. Those spoils were placed in geo-tubes on the grassy area by the marina where they drained before the spoils were hauled away by truck to private farmland in the Broadkill Beach area.
The town increased marina slip fees when it approved the budget June 2021. For boats up to 22 feet in length, the fee is now $2,100; for boats between 22 and 26 feet, the fee is now $2,425; and for boats longer than 26 feet, the fee is $2,800.
