From Waterways to Beaches

Courtesy Photo | Ocean City Inlet, Ocean City, Maryland, Oct. 31, 2012. (Courtesy photo)  

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES

08.28.2024

Story by David Adams 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District   

In the waterways of Maryland's Eastern Shore, the hard-working crew of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dredge MURDEN navigate their way through the shallow water, cleaning up the channels near Ocean City, dredging the project inside what teams call the 'clam dock' or the 'inside projects.'

"It is very shallow in there,” explained Barry Stull, first mate on the Dredge MURDEN. “I used to work on a side caster dredge when I first started here about 14 years ago, and the sand and water would come out the side, but you didn’t have a hopper to look at." Stull said it was amazing the first time he actually got to see the amount of sand that's taken out of the channel off the shoals.

The MURDEN has dredge pumps that get lowered into the water, sucking sand and water up through the drag heads. The sand and water then travel through the drag pipes, down the manifold, and into the hopper. The sand stays in the hopper as the water gets drained out.
Paul Salib, dredge control officer, ensures everything runs smoothly.

“My responsibility is to operate the drags to help suck up the sand and sediment on the bottom of the channel," Salib said. "We have to pump it up into the hopper so we can remove it. I can actually see the sand and the sediment I’m taking up out of the channel and bringing it down to Assateague to wash it up onto the beach there."

This dredging process helps make the shallow waterways deep enough for all the fishermen, both commercial and recreational, to get in and out of the harbor while simultaneously slowing the erosion of the ocean side of Assateague Island. USACE reuses the sediment it pulls out of the waterways and drops it off as close to the Assateague beach as possible, which allows the sand to be pulled toward the beach with the tide. The MURDEN is a unique vessel and handles the near shore disposals, unlike most ships.

"I would say about ninety percent are near-shore disposals, and we can ease right up to the beach pretty close with about three feet of clearance underneath the keel, and the ship opens with hydraulics,” explained Victor Nelson, captain of the MURDEN.

Unlike most ships, the MURDEN hull is split down the middle and held together with hydraulics. When the MURDEN drops off the sediment, the ship opens completely, dumping out 350-400 cubic yards of sediment within two to three minutes.

“I come from a commercial fishing family," said Nelson. "My father was a fisherman, and my grandfather was a fisherman. That gives me a really good perspective, I feel, about what the community or public needs in some of these smaller inlets — because it is
their livelihood.

• Date Taken: 08.28.2024
• Date Posted: 09.25.2024 12:37
• Story ID: 479758
• Location: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, US