Action on Burry Port Harbour

A licence has been applied for to remove an unprecedented level of sand silting up Burry Port Harbour.
In recent years Carmarthenshire County Council has spent £20,000-£30,000
annually combating the build-up of sand within and blocking the harbour entrance.
Over the last decade more than £8million has been spent converting the naturally emptying to mud open mouthed harbour into a water retained marina.
Now an unusual build up of sand in and around the main fairway of the harbour during the last few months is now causing severe disruption to navigation.
The bulk of the sand was brought into the harbour during the storms and high prevailing unusual easterly winds experienced in November and December. (2009)
Harbour master Rory Dickinson said: “We have witnessed sand inundation in the harbour over the last few years but never to this extent in such a short period of time.
“The sand build up has been fouling the hydraulic cill gate which helps retain a body of water in the harbour.”
In the first week of December divers cleared two to three feet of sand from the well behind the gate. The gate failed to go down in mid January and, on inspection, sand deposits of up to four feet had returned to the well.
Last week the cill was partially dropped to help clear a sand bar from the entrance to the harbour.
In the spring of 2009 a build up of sand and silt was cleared by a dredger using a water injection to establish a navigable fairway. This system was chosen because it was the only one that could be used immediately without a dredge licence.
It proved reasonably successful in removing silt from the harbour but had difficultly shifting the heavier sand. However, the dredger did manage to create an adequate, if not perfect, fairway channel for the spring and summer season.
Unfortunately, initial survey work suggests there is now a sand crust of over three feet across most of the fairway bed which required a licence from the Marine and Fisheries Agency for any sand removal operation and this can take up to three months to process.
The County Council has already spoken to a number of companies and will meet with several others in order to establish the most efficient and cost effective way of dredging the Harbour with the aim of undertaking the works as soon as the licence is approved. Investigations are also being carried out to see whether or not a navigable fairway channel can be created as ‘emergency works’ if the licence is not forthcoming prior to the spring season.
Because it does require removal of sand it might be possible to clear the fairway by bulldozing sand against the west wall of the harbour to keep the fairway and removing the sand when the licence is in place.
Mr Dickinson said the Council would be making every effort to ensure that vessels can enter and leave the Harbour safely by April which was traditionally when the boating season opened.
“At the same time mechanical excavators will once again be employed to re-establish the access channel outside the Harbour.”
In the meantime, the County Council is looking at various small scale dredging systems that could be used on a permanent, on-going basis in order to combat future sand/silt inundation.
Harbour staff are currently preparing a chart detailing the amount of water that can be expected in the fairway at different stages of the tide. When completed, this will be displayed on the notices boards on either side of the Harbour. Regular updates will also be posted on the notice boards over the coming weeks.

Sand problem: This sand bank is forming inside the harbour where there should be four feet of water.

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