HomeProgress-Index, 07/23/2006
Opening the waterways
Petersburg is closer to start dredging the Appomattox River
By Susan Robertson, Staff Writer
PETERSBURG — The Appomattox River was once a free-flowing, fully navigable waterway that brought commercial and pleasure crafts to Petersburg, but over the last 25 years silt has built up in the riverbed and rendered portions of the river unnavigable.
In the 1920s, a diversion channel was created on the north side of Pocahontas Island to prevent flooding in the downtown area. The channel was initially intended to take flood waters away from the harbor because they were causing damage when they rose above the riverbanks.
“It really did hurt the river because it [the diversion channel] prevented flushing,” said Ron Reekes, assistant director of public works for Petersburg.
“We think the silting of the river was due to the construction of [Interstate 95]. It was built before there was any focus on erosion control and all that sediment just washed down into the Appomattox and silted it in.”
Working toward a dream
The last complete dredging of the Appomattox River took place in 1949 and since then two partial dredgings, in 1971 and 1993, have happened. But the city is now working diligently toward its dream of dredging the river and creating a small boat harbor and waterfront development opportunities in Old Towne.
“It’s going to be a wonderful economic catalyst and tourist boom for the area,” said Del. Rosalyn R. Dance, D-63rd. “Waterways are where the pulse of a city is and this is going to be very uplifting for a historic town like Petersburg.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the federal agency charged with maintaining “federally authorized navigable waterways” like the Appomattox River. The city requested that the Corps dredge the river several times during latter half of the 20th century, but the Corps, like many other federal agencies, was dealt budget cuts that caused it to place greater priorities on other rivers than the Appomattox.
Tantalizingly close
During the partial dredging in 1993, dredging was completed on approximately 9 miles of the 9.7-mile authorized navigational channel before the Corps hit a petroleum-based contaminant that officials initially believed caused a minimal fish kill. It is now believed that a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water, resulting from the dredging, actually caused the fish kill.
The discovery of the contaminant, originally thought to be creosote, served to suspend dredging because officials feared that the substance could cause further environmental damage or additional fish kills. Nearly 5,000 linear feet of the river was left undredged.
Through an environmental study, it was determined that the substance could be contained and collected, and that the city could continue with the dredging. The plan is to dredge the river to a navigable depth of 10 to 12 feet from the confluence of the James River to the harbor in Petersburg.
“We anticipate that there will be a kill of some of the flora and the fauna in this dredging as well because it will be sucked up in the dredge,” Reekes said.
A placement site for the dredging materials will be located in Prince George County off Temple Avenue near Puddledock Road. The city is currently exercising an option to buy the site from Vulcan Materials, the current landowner.
Nothing that cannot be overcome
“We recently received the Finding of No Significant Impact from the Corps of Engineers,” Reekes said. “That particularly with federal money is huge. What it says is that there is nothing so significant in the project that we cannot overcome.”
Now that the city has FONSI, the Army Corps of Engineers can proceed with the design of the dredging and the placement site.
“During the dredging some of the contaminant will be released, but we have programs in place to capture that material. Then we will go back and use clean material to cap the riverbed,” Reekes said.
The contaminated dredge material will be placed at the bottom of the placement site and capped as well so that only clean dredge material is on top of it.
The city is also working to create a wetlands mitigation site behind the American Family Fitness Center in Colonial Heights, on land owned by the city of Petersburg, to accommodate for the natural wetlands under the I-95 bridge that will be removed as a result of the dredging.
Project receives funding
In 2005, Petersburg received $500,000 from the General Assembly to continue the design and engineering of the Appomattox River Dredging Project and an additional $450,000 from the U.S. Congress.
“The Corps has just under $1 million to complete the design of the placement site and the dredging and gets us to the permitting stage of the process and that really takes us to what you would call pre-construction,” Reekes said.
The city received another $500,000 from the General Assembly this year to assist with permitting costs. According to Reekes, the design of the placement site is to be completed by January 2007 and the city will obtain permits by spring 2007 so that construction on the placement site can begin in the summer.
“The dredging is a four- to five-month process. If everything goes well and we have the funding, we hope to be dredging by late 2008 and have it completed by early 2009,” Reekes said. “If we are delayed, we will start in late 2009 and finish in early 2010.”
The total anticipated cost of the dredging of the Appomattox River is between $10 million and $12 million. The city hopes to acquire federal monies to complete the project.
• Susan Robertson may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 272.
