A total of 59 public water access projects in 19 Maryland counties will receive a total of $6 million in state Waterway Improvement Fund grants for fiscal year 2016.
This total, the largest amount Maryland has received since 2009, includes $2.2 million for dredging projects in six counties to help keep waterways open for recreation and commerce.
The projects include: dredging local navigation channels; developing and maintaining public boating access facilities; installing marine sewage pumpout stations; providing matching funds required to leverage federal grants related to boating projects; improving parking; and upgrading existing infrastructure such as bulkheads, piers, and boat ramps, as well as electrical and water supply lines.
$585,997 will fund the statewide dredging of designated public shallow water navigation channels, or publicly owned boating facilities that occur outside of the budget cycle or exceed the appropriated funding amount. A $155,000 project will restore boating access to Pocahontas Creek Headwaters.
Projects were funded in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Kent, Prince George’s, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, St. Mary’s, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico and Worchester counties.
Maryland and other bay states aim to add 300 new access sites across the watershed by 2025, as part of the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement’s public access goal.
source: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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