WEDA PRESS RELEASE: ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

PRESS RELEASE 

THREE ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS WERE HONORED AT 

WEDA’S SUMMIT & EXPO, JULY 2022 in HOUSTON, TEXAS 

Each year at its annual Summit & Expo, the Western Dredging Association (WEDA) takes pride in presenting Environmental Excellence Awards, acknowledging projects that demonstrate environmental awareness. This year three categories of environmental excellence were recognized: Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change, Navigation Dredging, and Environmental Dredging. The winners were announced at the Summit & Expo held from July 25 to 28, 2022, in Houston, Texas.   

WEDA’s 2022 Environmental Excellence Award for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change was presented to the Project Team for the Cedar Bayou and Vinson Slough Reopening Project in Aransas County, Texas. 

Cedar Bayou is a natural tidal inlet, located approximately 40 miles southwest of the Matagorda Ship Channel in Aransas County, Texas. When the inlet is open, it enhances the surrounding bay system by providing circulation to 22,000 acres of Vinson Slough marshes, serves as a migratory fish pass for marine life, and supports the economy of Aransas County. The bayou is also a critical habitat for endangered species such as piping clover, red knot, whooping crane, and several sea turtle species, and it serves as a fish pass for red drum, spotted sea trout, and blue crab to move from the Gulf of Mexico into Mesquite Bay to spawn. 

Historically, the inlet’s hydraulic connection to the Gulf is vital for marine and bird habitats and has often opened and closed, making frequent maintenance dredging necessary. In 2014, a reopening effort was completed with approximately 600,000 cubic yards of material being dredged from the Cedar Bayou inlet and connecting Vinson Slough. After the completion of the project, monitoring efforts indicated that ecological productivity increased substantially, and an overall increase in both tidal sand flat, estuarine wetlands, and seagrass resulted. Then, in August 2017, a Category 4 hurricane, Harvey, caused sediment buildup at the tidal inlet and the closure of the channel once again. Since its closure in 2017, the lack of tidal exchange has adversely impacted the bay system's health, including an overall reduction in marine life and water quality. Thus, in May 2021, an intricate combination of mechanical and hydraulic dredging was undertaken, removing approximately 300,000 cubic yards of material from Cedar Bayou and Vinson Slough and reopening the inlet. Dredged material was beneficially used as beach nourishment south of the project site along St. Joe Island. 

This project brought stability to an ever-changing habitat, a stability that will lead to greater benefits for all habitats that rely on this area, while also being cost-effective in reducing the amount of future maintenance dredging. The methodologies used here are easily transferrable to hydrologic restoration dredging projects within ephemeral inlets aimed at enhancing environmental habitats, such as those found throughout the Texas Gulf Coast and similar barrier island environments around the world.

The Project Team Members honored were C.H. “Burt” Mills Junior, Aransas County Judge; John Strothman, Aransas County Project Manager; Aaron Horine, P.E., Luis Maristany, P.E., Derek Salazar, EIT, and Thomas Everett, P.E., all of Mott MacDonald. 

WEDA’s 2022 Environmental Excellence Award for Navigation Dredging was presented to the Project Team for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard Project at Ballast Point, San Diego, California. 

The U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) Mooring Ballast Point (MBP) station is located at Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL) in San Diego, California. In 2018, the Coast Guard MBP was critically in need of dredging. The primary mooring docks were nearly buried in sand, and the Coast Guard vessels moored at the site were beginning to hit bottom at low tide. As a result, accelerated permitting was necessary to obtain approvals for dredging and placement of the sediments.   

In the early stages of planning, the Navy approached the Coast Guard to collaborate on an

artificial reef and eelgrass restoration project at a site directly adjacent to the dredging site at a Navy beach called Smuggler’s Cove. The Navy restoration plan proposed using recycled materials from the deconstruction of the P-180 Navy Fueling Pier to build a rocky reef structure, and then use sediment from the Coast Guard mooring area to bring the eroding beach and offshore areas up to a shallower grade. 

With partnering from Resource and Regulatory Agencies the project included restoring a recreational beach, stabilizing a seawall, reducing shoreline erosion, creating an eelgrass habitat, and adding a rocky reef. It benefited two Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPCs) under the Pacific Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan and contributed to goals of shoreline softening under the San Diego Bay Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan. The project further enabled the Navy to meet objectives for solid waste diversion while providing recreational benefits to the military and their families and research opportunities for local students. 

The collaboration between the Coast Guard and Navy to beneficially reuse the MBP sediment allowed the successful dredging of the MPB in 2019, construction of the FeISH Reef from November 2019 to May 2020, and eelgrass planting in June 2020, developing a multi-purpose habitat from repurposed pier demolition rubble and maintenance dredged sand. Since that time, the new reef area has been monitored by Merkel & Associates and students from California State University Fullerton to examine short- and intermediate-timeframe recruitment processes in community development on artificial reefs. The project area currently shows a stable beach and reef, expanding eelgrass habitat, a new soft shoreline that is increasingly used by foraging birds, and developing reef communities. 

The Project Team Members honored were Mitch Perdue, Senior Biologist, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest; Erin Hale, Project Manager and Permitting Lead, formerly with Wood, now with U.S. Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Oakland; Gilda Barboza, Project Manager, U.S. Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Oakland; Kimbrie Gobbi, Lead Project Scientist, Barry Snyder, Principal Scientist, Erica Geasler-Bromley, Program Manager, and Aaron Goldschmidt, Project Quality Assurance/Quality Control, all of Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc.; Keith Merkel, Principal Biologist, Merkel & Associates, Inc.; Seung Suk, Environmental Program Director, Camp Lemonnier Installation; Rob Chichester, Environmental Program Director, Naval Base Point Loma Installation; Rick Basinet, Engineer, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest; Walt Wilson, Marine Biologist, Navy Region Southwest; and Alan Alcorn, Principal Engineer, Moffat & Nichol. 

The 2022 WEDA Environmental Excellence Award for Environmental Dredging was presented

to the Project Team for Lightning Point Shoreline Restoration Project, Bayou La Batre and Mississippi Sound, Alabama. 

The Lightning Point coastline, located at the confluence of the Bayou La Batre navigation channel and Mississippi Sound, on the coast of Alabama, has been repeatedly exposed to tropical cyclone impacts throughout history and has lost some 600 feet of shoreline over the last 100 years. The main objective of the Shoreline Restoration Project was to restore habitat and resources that were injured as a result of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  

To achieve this, both resilience and sustainability concepts were integrated with ecological components early in the engineering and design phase. Coastal beach features were constructed to prioritize the establishment of State Species of Concern, such as least terns and diamondback terrapins, which are being raised off-site and will be released on-site over the next few years by the University of Alabama-Birmingham scientists. 

The extent of the project’s ecological uplift and enhanced ecological services were calculated for the lifetime of the project and are being monitored to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience. Key design tenets include revitalizing the locally important waterfront area at Lightning Point, restoring, enhancing, and protecting the shoreline habitats, and providing improved community access; a Community Front Porch to provide an enhanced experience for locals and visitors for boating, fishing, and site-seeing; a resilient and productive shoreline, which restores diverse coastal habitats that enhance recreational opportunities and provide long-term shoreline protection; and enhanced accessibility to a safe, enjoyable area for the community to connect with the waterfront. 

The 56-acre Lightning Point Shoreline Restoration Project construction began in October 2019 and was completed in July 2020, just as the record-setting 2020 Atlantic hurricane season arrived. Eight tropical cyclones made landfall along the Gulf Coast; four of them caused elevated water levels at the project site. Although high surges, winds, and wave impacts to the newly restored shoreline inundated the site, the low-crested breakwaters performed as intended as barriers, the 4 acres of scrub-shrub habitats acted as additional speed-bumps, the newly planted marsh grasses stabilized the sediment and blunted the wave energy, and the expanded 40 acres of marsh habitat provided a significant buffer preventing erosion of the protected marsh and the adjacent community of Bayou La Batre.

The Lightning Point Shoreline is currently thriving. Reconnecting of the tidal creek through the eastern marsh provided for tidal exchange and fisheries ingress and egress at the intertidal marshes for the first time in 75 years. 

The Project Team Members honored were The Nature Conservancy of Alabama (especially Judy Haner and Mary Kate Brown); Moffatt & Nichol (especially Meg Goecker, Nick Cox, and Kevin Hanegan); the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) - Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund;

General Contractor Crowder Gulf, LLC; and subcontractors: J & W Marine Enterprises, Inc.; Wildlife Solutions, Inc; Magnolia Dredge and Dock, LLC; and HydroTerra Technologies, LLC. 

The prize-winning project teams fulfilled the criteria of WEDA’s Environmental Commission and me the commission’s goals to “promote communication and understanding of environmental issues and stimulate new solutions associated with dredging and placement of dredged materials such that dredging projects, including navigation and environmental, are accomplished in an efficient manner while meeting environmental goals.” 

For further information, please contact Craig Vogt at Craig@CraigVogt.com or Tom Cappellino at tcappellino@westerndredging.org or see the WEDA website: www.westerndredging.org.

Best regards,

Craig Vogt
WEDA Awards Committee Chair
Craig@CraigVogt.com

Thomas P. Cappellino
WEDA Executive Director
tcappellino@westerndredging.org