Orleans Natural Resources Committee Unanimously Backs Powwow Channel Dredge Recommendation

ORLEANS -- March 17, 2026, Orleans Natural Resources Committee votes to pursue dredging of Powwow Channel off Pleasant Bay. The committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend to the Select Board that a formal dredge process be initiated for the channel, which members said has grown progressively shallower and more difficult to navigate. Ted Keon, former coastal resources director for the Town of Chatham, briefed the committee on the regulatory and logistical landscape, noting that Pleasant Bay's Area of Critical Environmental Concern designation bars new improvement dredging but that historical permits from the late 1950s should allow maintenance dredging of the roughly 500-to-700-foot entrance. Keon estimated the timeline at three or more years from initiation to actual dredging, calling disposal of the material, likely beach-nourishment-compatible sand, the central challenge. Barnstable County surveyors already working in the area are expected to conduct bathymetric surveys of the channel within the week, providing baseline data for an eventual engineering scope of work. The harbormaster also reported a precautionary shellfish closure of Meeting House Pond after red tide cell counts reached just short of 1,300 parts per million, with meat samples sent to labs Monday.