NEWBURYPORT — Federal engineers met with Plum Island civic leaders Friday at a landfill in Seabrook in an inspired effort to evaluate stone for possible use in fortifying the deteriorating jetties at the mouth of the Merrimack River.
If the stones prove usable, it could cut substantial costs from the yet-to-be-funded project. The estimated cost without using the local stones has been pegged at $5 million or more.
On Sept. 2, at a meeting of the Merrimack River Beach Alliance, representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers reported the news that there might not be enough money to fix the jetties anytime soon.
Ron Barrett, president of the Plum Island Taxpayers Association, then brought forth a novel thought: get stone from a vast inventory adjacent to Seabrook Station in New Hampshire.
Barrett introduced Arleigh Greene, owner of Seabrook Truck Center, Inc., who revealed that he has a contract with the nuclear facility to get rid of acres of stone that was unearthed during construction decades ago. The stone field is so large, it is clearly visible from satellite maps such as Google Earth.
Greene and Barrett invited members of the Army Corps of Engineers to see the rocks and assess it for its strength and size. They came, they saw, they nodded in assent.
"This looks pretty good," said Tracy Dorgan, a geologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, who toured the soil and rock landfill. "It appears hard enough and you can see that the stone is of good size."
Edward O'Donnell, chief, navigation section of the New England Division of the Corps, said he was impressed by the amount of rock on the site. Huge boulders are currently being crushed into gravel, but there are hundreds of mammoth stones still available for use.
O'Donnell said that transporting the rock a few miles from Seabrook to Plum Island could save a significant amount of money.
Greene summed it up: "The rock is here and we can get it there cheaply, perhaps by barge. We would like this to work."
Spirits were high as the leaders talked earnestly over the noise of rock-smashing machines so large they could probably demolish Rhode Island in a fortnight.
But O'Donnell said, "It's an idea worth considering, but there has to be money to pay for the project."
Estimates by maritime officials have indicated that it would take about $5 million to acquire rock and fortify both of the jetties protruding into the Atlantic.
Vincent Russo, who heads the Merrimack Valley Beach Alliance and is a former chairman of the Newbury Board of Selectmen, said, "I used to think $5 million in the federal budget wasn't much. But now, with the cost-cutting you hear about, that seems like a lot."
O'Donnell, who works out of a regional office in Concord, said, "Sometimes federal money goes to harbor-improvement projects that have more tonnage (of ships) coming through.
"Boston is much bigger, for instance. Newburyport would be low on a priority list in terms of tonnage."
According to leaders of the alliance, a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., is being planned so that local officials can explain the need to improve the jetties to federal officials.
And it's likely that Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., whom Plum Island natives recall spent much of his youth on the island, will be approached to see if he can help.
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