Dredged and Disappointed

We’ve been asked to identify the worst stretches of the river,” Zubricki said. “Because if they come back, it’s likely to be surgical—just the worst areas. Not a full redo.”

It was supposed to restore safe passage and strengthen the local economy.  Instead, a long-awaited $2.3 million federal dredging project in Essex has left harbor conditions, according to many boaters, worse than before—and with a growing trail of frustration, finger-pointing, and unanswered questions.

The four-month Essex River dredging project, according to filings, had been completed in February by a contractor for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and funded entirely with federal money. 

But it’s the “completed” part that has upset many locals who say the project was incomplete and substandard.  After a closed-door meeting to address it all last Friday, July 25 between Essex town officials, Army Corps representatives, state and federal legislators including state Sen. Bruce Tarr, Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, and aides to US Congressman Seth Moulton, there are still more questions than answers.

“The question on the table is simple,” Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki said going into last week’s meeting.  “What’s the Corps going to do now?”

Conspicuously absent from the room were representatives from the town’s three private marinas—Pike Marine, Perkins Marine, and Essex Marina—whose owners say they’ve been left with broken promises, ballooning estimates, and in some cases, worsened conditions for their customers.

The last time Essex conducted a comprehensive dredging effort was in 1992, using state funds.  This time, the town was able to secure federal funding, even though fully federally funded dredging is rare for small towns like Essex.  How did Essex do it?  By arguing the critical nature of the Essex River to the local economy.

Ted Marshall, owner of Agawam Boat & Fishing Charters in Essex, has spent his entire life on the Essex River.  Most of his business comes from private fishing charters, and he began sounding the alarm early on dredging.  Six years ago, he repeatedly told town leaders at Chamber of Commerce Essex Division meetings that large stretches of the river had become dangerously shallow, making commercial boating nearly impossible except during narrow windows of the right tide. 

A 2022 US Coast Guard report supported Marshall’s account: “Mariners without local knowledge are advised to transit with extreme caution and only during plus tides.  … Mariners are urged to use caution while transiting the area,” it read. 

The town, which had unsuccessfully explored environmental grants tied to coastal resilience, tried a new tack—dredging would support the local economy. 

And it worked.  In July 2023 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Request for Proposal aimed at maintenance dredging, but they pulled it after no qualifying bids were received.   A second RFP followed, and on Sept. 10, 2024 the Army Corps awarded the $2,284,000 Essex River dredging contract to Atlantic Coast Tug & Marine out of New Hampshire.  This would be Atlantic’s first major federal navigation project, following a smaller $798,000 contract in 2023 for a berth dredge for the USS Constitution in Boston.

The Essex project covered dredging of the federal channel, along with mobilization, permitting, disposal, and oversight.  It did not include dredging of areas controlled by Essex’s three private marinas—Pike, Perkins, and Essex Marina. 

But the marinas were invited to “piggyback” on the project by contracting separately as private clients with Atlantic, which offered a valuable chance to share that cost and dredge efficiently.  Piggybacking is common practice, since mobilizing dredging equipment—which can run up to $900,000—is prohibitively expensive for individual operators. 

By all accounts, dredging began late in fall 2024, and ended abruptly on February 15, when the contractor declared the job complete and left. 

“They said they were done and ran out of time,” said Scott Woodward, owner of Pike Marine. “We were just told: we’re leaving, done or not.”

For the three marina owners—Scott Woodward of Pike Marine, Scott DeWitt of Perkins Marine, and Curt Bergeron of Essex Marina—the issue lies in the broken promise of a dredging project that never happened for them, and more importantly, for their customers whose boats stand high on mud flat slips at low tide. 

What did happen?  Well, together, the marinas shelled out more than $300,000 to GZA GeoEnvironmental, a well-established consulting firm in Norwood, MA go secure all the required permitting for their part of the project.  But as the project started and they met with Atlantic to confirm the plan for what was estimated to be another $1 million in dredging for their marinas, the three owners say Atlantic kept changing the schedule and the price.  This continued up until February when they learned that it simply wouldn’t happen.

“We were promised four feet of draft at low tide in key stretches,” said Zubricki.  “We’re hearing that’s just not the case. In some areas, it feels like navigability has gotten worse.”

In the meeting, the Army Corps cited major system changes between the planning surveys (done in 2021–2023) and the actual work period in late 2024—including extreme winter storm activity and sloughing of sandy materials.  (Surveys completed before the project were reportedly not addressed).  Further, the Army Corps said even with additional volume authorized during dredging, the result fell short.

For a small coastal town like Essex—where the harbor system is relatively shallow and heavily influenced by tidal flows—recommended intervals between dredging is 10 to 20 years, according to USACE and the MA Coastal Zone Management.  In practice, though, many towns stretch it longer because of funding or regulatory challenges.  Newburyport, for instance, went 23 years between its last two major federal dredges.  Scituate waited 20 years before dredging in 2021. 

The issue of cost is huge.  In fact, in 2019 Essex was part of a proposed collaborative of coastal communities from Salisbury to Gloucester convened by Sen. Bruce Tarr.  Called the Northeast Coastal Coalition, its goal was to explore a coordinated dredging—including potential purchase of shared dredge equipment and joint planning efforts.  The initiative never made it past a $55,000 state-funded feasibility study.

On Monday, Zubricki wrote in a memo to the marinas that in last week’s meeting, the Army Corps confirmed it will not return this winter.  The best-case scenario is that it could reprogram internal funds to address the most critical chokepoints in the winter of 2026–2027. 

“We’ve been asked to identify the worst stretches of the river,” Zubricki said. “Because if they come back, it’s likely to be surgical—just the worst areas. Not a full redo.” 

He added that with secured permits will still be in effect, so the marinas will be able to again piggyback onto the job.

For his part, Sen. Tarr pledged to investigate whether the state might be able to contribute matching funds, but even if that happened, the fix would be limited.  And with the current federal funding cuts to Massachusetts funding, the idea of finding public monies under the proverbial cushions feels remote to many.

Meanwhile, Essex’s new harbormaster, Police Chief Tom Shamshak, will be working with other officials to flag trouble spots on the latest maps before another meeting takes place after Labor Day.