Saving Islands in the Chesapeake

From the Baltimore Sun:

The Maryland Port Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are proposing to spend more than $1 billion to rebuild two islands in the Chesapeake Bay -- the government's latest plan to use dredge spoil from shipping channels to enhance the environment.

The two agencies propose to remove tons of silt and sediment from the state's waters, then haul it down the bay to create a 2,000-acre wildlife preserve at James Island, a spit of land off the coast of Dorchester County that is quickly vanishing. The two agencies also want to replenish the shoreline at nearby Barren Island, another fast-disappearing remnant of land near Hoopers Island.

There seems to be a lot of benefits to the plan, as the article notes, but whether it will get the funding it needs, and whether the Army Corps of Engineers, given its history, will do the job right, in uncertain.

Tags: maryland chesapeake environment