July 1, 2025 — The feds are trying to figure out where to put 50 million cubic yards of ocean floor dirt.
By federal law, the shipping lanes of New York and New Jersey Harbor must be deep enough for large cargo ships. To maintain a depth of around 50 feet, the harbor requires constant dredging from the ocean floor. That dirt is dumped in an 18-square-mile patch of ocean nearly nine miles south of the Rockaways.
But that stretch of submerged landfill is nearly at capacity. And now, the Army Corps of Engineers is looking for a new site to dump the dirt — and it’s a surprisingly complex task.
The EPA produced maps showing where the dredged material could be dropped. The sites had to be within 40 miles of the harbor to be economically feasible. The site also had to be deeper than 75 feet, meaning more than five miles from shore. Navigation channels and anchorage areas were off limits, as well as locations designated for wind farms or submerged cables.
Fishing holes, however, were not off limits. The three proposed dumping areas are places where commercial fishers harvest scallops, herring, clams and squid.
“Obviously more material that goes out and is put on new sites becomes problematic for us because it’s basically fishing ground that historically we’ve been able to fish that we will now lose,” said Scot Mackey, an official with the Garden State Seafood Association. “We are concerned about all of the structure that is going out there and impacting our fishing grounds.”