Corps of Engineers to study Camp Ellis erosion in Saco
Courtesy / SOS Saco Bay
An aerial photo shows beach mitigation efforts at Camp Ellis in Saco. The jetty is to the right.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to participate in a conference call with municipal, state and federal officials next week to discuss next steps in dealing with continued erosion problems at Camp Ellis in Saco.
The jetty built decades ago at Camp Ellis by the Corps of Engineers has amplified the power of breaking waves, destroying homes and eroding hundreds of feet of beach, officials have said.
In February, a meeting was held with Saco officials, Sen. Justin Chenette, D-Saco; Maine’s state geologist, Robert Marvinney; and field representatives for U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine; and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District.
“We’re looking forward to learning about progress made during next week’s conference call,” said David Plavin, vice president of SOS Saco Bay in a news release. “If things change due to the current crisis the nation is facing, we will alert our network immediately. But for now we’re assuming the call, unless we hear otherwise, meets appropriate social distancing guidelines and that it will go forward.”
The organization posted a video this week showing an exchange between Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rickey D. James and King in 2018 during a Senate committee hearing, in which James said he's aware of the problem. "And I am aware that it’s taken way too long to get to a fix on that problem.”
King told the assistant secretary he wanted the Army Corps to find a solution “in order to solve this problem that’s been going on for forty years.” James told King he was personally committed to addressing the senator’s concerns.
SOS Saco Bay, which is advocating for environmental mediation, has filed with the Internal Revenue Service to become a 501(c) 4 non-profit organization. The organization has an archive of both articles and documents on its website related to the years' long effort by residents of the community and others to address the problem.
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As a resident of Saco, I've been following this issue for decades and my question is this: If the jetty is the root cause of the problem, why doesn't the Army Corp simply remove it or make a hole in it and allow the sands brought down from the Saco River to replenish the beaches? Is there another contributing factor to this problem like the hydro dams up the Saco river also preventing sand from flowing downstream to naturally replenishing the beaches?
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