Smith Island to Get Upgrade

Much needed jetty project a big win for Smith Island

Smith Island is scheduled to get  much needed helping hand from the government. The Army Corps of Engineers releasing a plan that would build jetty's among other things to help alleviate erosion problems at Rhodes Point and reduce the need for dredging.

The Army Corps released the plan for public comment Thursday, but people 47 ABC spoke with are already giving it thumbs up.

"Our dear lord had a big hand in this cause prayers has been answered, yes," said Maxine Landon, a life-long resident of Rhodes Point, a part of Smith Island.

Landon said she has been pushing for a jetty to be created for close to 40 years. She said now that there are plans in place for their creation she couldn't be more elated.

The plan in part would be to realign a portion of Sheep Pen Gut and create two jetties. The jetties would reduce the need for continual dredging, a process where sand is removed from the floor of the bay.

Landon said right now the sediment is so built up that ships cannot pass through without bottoming out.

"Our men that that have to crab can't go out that way , they have to go the whole way around the island to get out in the Chesapeake Bay and that takes a lot of fuel," Landon said. "My brother for one can't get in there to his crab house to put his pots on his wharf because there's so much sand there he can't get in there."

If rising sea level is such a problem, why are their waterways getting shallower instead of deeper?