The fate of Westport’s ever-shoaling federal channel recently got good news from the federal government, when marine services director Chris Leonard learned that the United States Army Corps of Engineers has added a $1 million dredging project to its list of projects for the 2024 fiscal year, which started Oct. 1.

Leonard learned of the $1,086,000 in funding last week and while he is optimistic that the work will be done, he said it’s not a given and now is the time to start rallying local officials to support what he says is a much-needed project.

“Now we just have to talk to our friends and make this a priority, so it doesn’t get bumped off the list.”

Over the past several years the channel has become severely shoaled in some spots, so much so that the channel markers that once defined the route in and out have been moved multiple times to signify where good water is. Boats running aground has become a common occurrence.

The harbor was last dredged about 20 years ago, and this time around the plan would be to dredge a 150 by 200-foot channel nine feet deep. Though it is unknown how long the dredged section would run, the channel itself runs more than 9,000 feet from the entrance to Westport Harbor.

“North of the Spindle Rock docks is where it gets choked out,” Leonard said.

Leonard said the next step is to draft letters to the Board of Selectmen, representatives, senators and other policy makers, informing them of the funding and asking for support and follow-through with the feds.

“We need to move this forward,” he said.

Removing channel markers?

The possible dredging isn’t the only news Leonard recently got regarding the channel.

He heard recently from the Coast Guard’s Bristol Aids to Navigation team that the agency wants to remove all channel markers inside of #12 from the river over the winter months — possibly from the beginning of the year through mid-March. The reasoning is that the coast guard has replaced many of its steel channel markers with plastic, and officials are worried about damage to them from ice floes.

Leonard said he isn’t very keen on the idea, and worries particularly about the impact on professional mariners who rely on the radar signatures of those large channel markers.

“Commercial vessels in Westport need something with a radar signature to mark what we have for good water,” he said. “We don’t mind if you bring it down to a skeleton crew (of markers), but to remove everything and tell people to rely on their track line or something to that effect with no radar signature, I think is unreasonable.”

Leonard spoke about the issue with the head of the Bristol navigation team, and learned that another reason the coast guard is considering the removal is due to the town’s classification as a “seasonal harbor.”

“I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been doing this since 2007,’” Leonard said. “Not once since my time working for the town have I ever heard of or seen the removal of all channel markers within the Westport River.”

As for the harbor’s supposed seasonal nature, he said, “My question was, ‘When was Westport classified as that?’ I’m still waiting for that question to be answered. I have at least 12 reasons (to consider it a year-round harbor) right there at the end of this commercial dock.”