Dredging needed to be publicized

3/22/07

The dredging of Caswell Cove has been handled clumsily. What could have been a routine action has been dragged into a morass of complaints, recriminations and now a lawsuit. Appropriate communication between towns, businesses and state agencies would have headed off these problems.
Caswell Cove, on the Milford side of the Housatonic River, needs dredging because sediment has been building up, clogging the river bottom and potentially stranding boaters. The marina management there went through years of applications and approvals from the Department of Environmental Protection, and permission was granted to remove the sediment. A dumping spot on the Shelton side, however, was not cleared with anyone in that town, nor was it required to be. But courtesy and respect dictate that someone in the town should have been informed about it.
Shelton residents discovered the action by accident, after the permits were issued. The dumping site — now planned near Two Mile Island after two other options were rejected — and the contents of the dredged material have raised new questions. The DEP says the Caswell Cove material is cleaner than the underwater gravel it will cover at the new dumping site, but considering the department's first choice had to be abandoned because it was an important fish habitat — a fact that apparently escaped environmental officials — there is a credibility issue.
State Rep Lawrence G. Miller, of Stratford, deserves credit for pushing through the Assembly's Environment Committee a requirement that affected communities be notified of pending dumping. But the DEP should take action first, and immediately change its notification policy. It's not too much to ask that town officials, residents and boaters know what's happening in their river, especially when there are environmental questions.
As to the concern over pollutants, there have been legitimate complaints raised. But questions over how clean one site is compared to another, or whether materials can be expected to drift back where they came from can only be decided by the experts. We're left in the unfortunate position of having to trust people who know better than we do. But it doesn't take an expert to know that people like to be told what's happening. Open communication could have avoided bad feelings from the start, and maybe engendered cooperation, not contention, over where the dredged material will end up.