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Coastal Bays soldiers on for grant support

By Greg Ellison

(Aug. 27, 2020) Since Worcester County was awarded only a portion of the Department of Natural Resources grant it sought to pay for drainage improvements around Bainbridge Park in Ocean Pines, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program continues to hunt for financial backing to complete the project.

Executive Director Kevin Smith said his agency submitted three preliminary proposals on Aug.7 for Coastal Watersheds Grants facilitated through the National Estuary Program.

“We went back to Restore America’s Estuaries to ask for additional funds to make up for what we didn’t get on Bainbridge,” he said. “We got a third of what we asked for.”

Smith said Restore America’s Estuaries administers the funding stream provided by the Environmental Protection Agency for the National Estuary Program.

Although seeking more than $1.5 million to retrofit Bainbridge Pond for enhanced flood protection, Ocean Pines, with Worcester County acting as a funding conduit, was recently awarded $549,000 by DNR for a project expected to cost $2.3 million.

Smith said the additional funding now sought would not be sufficient to cover the budget deficiency for the proposed scope of work.

“The max amount we could apply for through America’s Estuaries was $250,000 [so] it didn’t make it up entirely,” he said.

Smith said money awarded would become available until after January 2021.

Unlike discussions of what grant opportunities Ocean Pines may pursue, Maryland Coastal Bays is already is in the midst of reeling in other funding.

“There’s one in the hopper right now,” he said.

Also included in the trio of recent grant proposals is funding for a southern bay assessment.

“That’s similar to what’s actually happening in the northern bays, which is kind of drilling down on potential water quality improvement projects,” he said.

The goal is reducing nutrient and contaminated runoff into bay waters.

The third proposal would finance a coastal bay island restoration for colonial nesting birds, such as herons, swallows and sea gulls, which typically shelter in locations devoid of ground predators.

“That’s mostly for colonial water bird nesting habitat,” he said.

In recent years, a precipitous decline has been observed in migrating bird species traditionally spotted on the Eastern Shore.

Established through the Clean Water Act in 1987, the nationally competitive Coastal Watersheds Grant Program backs projects aimed at remedying conditions that threaten the environmental health of coastal regions and estuary areas.

Smith said with fewer dollars currently at play than anticipated, the path forward for proposed upgrades around Bainbridge Pond still needs to be charted.

“In the meantime, it’s about cobbling together dollars to get things done,” he said. “Unfortunately, cobbling can be time consuming.”

Smith said while having the entire funding stream to complete the Bainbridge project would be ideal, waiting for that unlikely prospect is not advisable.

“Just whittle the project down,” he said. “Take what you can get and continue to try to get some more because otherwise the perfect storm never occurs.”