Column: South Ferry dredging up close

I’ve read about the dredging at South Ferry, and I cannot help noticing all the activity as I make trips to the South Fork.

It looks like a very complicated process. It is necessary to keep the boats running safely and smoothly and to offset the forces of nature that move sand around the bottom of the bay.

The sand that is being moved is called the spoils, and from what I have heard, it is being  pumped onto Shell Beach. I decided to drive out there and see what was going on.

Just back from the end of the peninsula on the side of the beach facing North Haven, there appears to be an encampment complete with a small cabin, a large bulldozer, what looks  like a generator and lengths of large-diameter piping.

The bulldozer was moving sand around and shaping the shoreline while the spoils — a mixture of sand, shells and water —  poured out of a large pipe. The process is going on 24 hours a day.

The project is managed by Suffolk County and presumably will not have any adverse effect on the piping plovers who nest in the spoils’ dumping area. The plovers have left for the winter. When they return, they’ll have new sand on which to make their nests.

I remember writing about the piping plovers in the early 80s. I’d see them running on the beach while I was fishing. I talked about them in my fishing column and advised readers to give them space and not let their dogs run on the beach. Since then, interest in and concern for the plovers’ well-being  became an issue and resulted in the closing of parts of the shoreline during their breeding season.

Editors at the Reporter told me that excess spoils will be transported to other eroding shore areas.

There will not be a mountain on Shell Beach.

Residential repair program
On another subject, I’d like to remind seniors that as you get involved with your fall cleanup and getting your home buttoned up for winter, if some projects are beyond you, contact the Office of Senior Services. You may be able to get some help.

Call Henrietta Roberts at 749-1059 to see if your project qualifies. You pay for the materials, they provide the labor.