Northern Neck Regional Shallow Draft Channel Dredging Plan: Initial Phase

The purpose of this project is to develop a regional dredging program for the localities of the Northern Neck. This report encompasses Phase 1 of the project, which included creating a database of waterbodies in Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland Counties and the Town of Colonial Beach along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers and Chesapeake Bay. Generally, these waterbodies can be categorized into three basic types of shallow draft channels: federally-authorized to include aids to navigation (ATONS), non-federal with ATONS, and non-federal without ATONs. Along the Northern Neck, presently identified, are 13 federal channels, 37 non-federal channels in creeks with ATONs, and 92 in creeks without defined channels or ATONs, for a total of 142 waterbodies. Additional non-federal creeks, coves, branches, and ponds (all are interchangeably identified as waterbodies in this report) occur in these localities, but the analysis was limited to waterbodies that had some residential or economic usage. These waterbodies occur in Lancaster (35 waterbodies), Northumberland (67 waterbodies), Richmond (4 waterbodies), and Westmoreland (31 waterbodies) counties. To avoid double counting of waterbodies, 5 additional waterbodies that are located on the boundaries of these counties were attributed to just one county for this report. These waterbodies have been grouped within one of their boundary counties bringing the number of waterbodies in Lancaster to 38 and Westmoreland to 33. Physical parameter data was collected or created for each of these waterbodies. These data included creek mouth morphology, amount of shoaling in the waterbody mouth, waterbody type (primary, secondary, etc.), water surface area, combined shoreline length, historical (1971- 2020) and current (2016-2020) SAV presence, private and public oyster lease presence and the amount of area they cover, number of remotely-sensed coastal structures such as piers, marinas, boat ramps, and verified economic facilities such as marinas and other mooring places, resource, seafood related, and transportation facilities that impact the locality’s economics. Utilizing the collected data, the steps that localities need to take for additional data collection to develop a dredging project were outlined, and recommendations were made for additional regional management considerations for use in Phases 2 and 3. Finally, next steps were suggested. By creating a regional program for dredging of shallow water, localities can save time, effort, and money. Such a program also provides ways for localities to plan for the utilization of dredge material to combat repetitive flooding and improve coastal resiliency