Henlopen Acres Marina dredging delayed to fall
Story Location:
Henlopen Acres Town Hall
104 Tidewaters
Henlopen Acres, DE 19971
United States
Boaters using the Henlopen Acres Marina are going to have to navigate shallow waters for at least one more boating season.
In an email March 5, Henlopen Acres Town Manager Tom Roth said a much-needed dredging project has been pushed back to the fall. The town had hoped to dredge the 58-slip marina on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal before the boating season began, but Roth said recent late-winter inclement weather impacted the town’s access to the disposal site. The town plans to dispose of the dredged material on an existing confined area located off Anglers Road in Lewes.
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.
The silting didn’t stop in the past year. During periods of extreme low tide, town employees have observed an increase in sediment in the areas to be dredged, said Roth. The project is necessary to keep the marina viable, he said.
The marina was last dredged in 2012, removing 4,000 cubic yards of spoils at a cost of $200,000.
Connection to Rehoboth Beach’s water
Aside from the dredging delay, the town will soon move forward with connecting to the Rehoboth Beach water system.
Henlopen Acres has been discussing this project since at least 2018, when a study showed the town’s water system was in good shape, but would need upgrades in the future.
Roth said the connection will be installed near the Henlopen Acres water plant, where the Rehoboth and Henlopen Acres water lines are within a few feet of each other. He said the contractor will install a pit between the two systems and connect the lines by a series of valves.
Should a need arise, said Roth, both towns would jointly open their respective valves to supply the other with treated potable water.
Roth said the project cost is roughly $40,000; work should begin in early April and should not take longer than two weeks to complete.
