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Chesapeake Bay Restoration Projects Shows Results

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090809-04
Release Date: 8/9/2009 4:28:00 AM

By Gary Wagner, Naval Support Activity South Potomac Public Affairs

INDIAN HEAD, Md. (NNS) -- The initial phase of an ambitious restoration project at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Indian Head has successfully stabilized an eroding Potomac River shoreline and created a thriving new habitat for fish and other wildlife.

Officials from Maryland's Department of the Environment and the Charles Soil Conservation District visited Naval Support Facility Indian Head to assess the effectiveness of an ambitious shoreline stabilization effort at the installation.

In the first phase of the project, 3,600 feet of stone breakwaters and sills, coupled with a regraded riverbank, improved ground water drainage and backfill to create acres of intertidal and wetland habitat that have replaced an unsightly, crumbling river bluff that was eroding at an annual rate of 1.5 feet per year.

From the start of the project in November 2007 with the construction of the breakwater, and continuing last summer with the planting of 15,000 wetland plants and 1,400 trees and shrubs, the two-thirds mile stretch of Potomac River shoreline north and south of the Pilot Plant facility has stabilized.

The success of the shoreline project was especially critical to that area of the installation, as Glenn Gass, an engineer for the Charles Soil Conservation District pointed out.

"The leading edge of the river bank that was collapsing into the Potomac River had eroded to within 33 feet of those buildings."

Gass lauded the first phase of the project for its timely completion on budget, as well as the incorporation of living shoreline features into the design.

"The Navy's not just creating a sterile beachfront," he said.

Indeed, new vegetation planted a year ago in the 11 acres of intertidal and wetland beachfront that was created behind the breakwater has firmly taken root. Wetland grasses, in particular, are flourishing around sills, or openings, in the breakwater that allow for the movement of water behind the breakwater to support coastal habitats.

"The area is healing," summarized Luis Dieguez, Charles Soil Conservation District manager.

Commenting on the scope of the shoreline stabilization effort, Dieguez added, "There is no other project of this magnitude in our conservation district, which includes all of Charles County and hundreds of miles of river and tributary shoreline."

The second phase of NSF Indian Head's shoreline project has been funded and is due to begin construction this year. It will stabilize an additional 5,400 feet of Potomac River shoreline south of the current project from the Large Motor Test complex to the old safety burn point.

The third phase of the project is under design and will incorporate shoreline restoration for the Potomac River shoreline behind the Mix House and headquarters buildings for the Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force and the Joint Interoperability Test Command, as well as portions of the shoreline for NSF Indian Head's Stump Neck Annex.

If fully funded, the total scope of the project will restore more than 38,000 feet of shoreline.

For more news from Naval Support Activity South Potomac, visit www.navy.mil/local/NSASP/.