Col. William Conde, New England District Commander, toured Hampton Harbor in New Hampshire with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, May 11 to see the condition of the harbor and to talk about the possibility of dredging it. The area has not been dredged since 2012.
“The winter storms have added quite a bit of shoaling to the anchorage and also damaged the jetty,” said Project Manager Ed O’Donnell, who accompanied the official party on the tour. “The locals explained that the shoaling was severely impacting their businesses.”
The channel is only 20 to 30 feet in some places and commercial fishing boats cannot get in or out of Hampton Harbor for about 3 to 4 hours a day.
“Appropriations may come out in the next couple of weeks that will give us some federal dollars to complete some design and some environmental coordination,” said Col. Conde. “And then we would need additional appropriations next year in Fiscal Year 2019 to do the dredging. We’re hopeful that will happen.”