Groton — Over the last two decades, so much silt, sand and gravel had accumulated around the docks at the Pine Island Marina that it became too shallow for the boats of some longtime customers.

“We’ve lost some business due to the filling in,” marina manager Miles Dull said Wednesday. “Dredging is something that has to be done from time to time.”

Dull said about six slips had become so shallow that customers were forced to move their boats elsewhere. The problem, he added, became noticeably worse after the tidal surges from Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.

This week, contractors from Cashman Dredging & Marine are completing excavation of about 22,000 cubic yards of material clogging the docks and channels around the 105-slip marina.

Once the project is complete, boats with drafts up to 6 feet will be able to use the docks and mooring areas at the marina — even at low tide, he said.

“It was getting harder to do business here,” he said. “With some of the sailboats, we had to be here at night to play the tide to bring them in. It was costing us more to have to bring the guys back in at night.”

The project at the Pine Island Marina illustrates not only why dredging is necessary to keep Long Island Sound’s harbors, channels and marinas open for boating, but also what’s involved in finding a place to put the tons of material dug up from the bottom.

The issue of dredge soil disposal has been the subject of recent studies, lots of debate and new proposed rules by federal regulatory agencies, most recently on Wednesday.

As the long-armed excavator was scooping material at Pine Island Marina, the Environmental Protection Agency released a proposed amendment to its 2005 rule for use of the central and western Long Island Sound dredge disposal sites.

Under the EPA's proposed amendment, a regional dredging team would be created to promote reuse of dredge materials for beach replenishment, marsh rebuilding and other onshore projects, said Stephen Perkins, member of the EPA's dredging team.

The proposal is intended to reduce the amount of silt, sand and gravel deposited in the estuary.

While the review process gets underway, the material being dredged at Pine Island is being hauled to the central Long Island site south of East Haven, about 45 miles from the marina.

George Wisker, environmental analyst with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said transporting the material to that site is costing the marina about three times more than it would to bring it to the closest disposal site, which is less than 5 miles offshore from New London near Fishers Island.

Neither DEEP nor the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which approved permits for the project, objected to use of the New London disposal site, Wisker said.

New York state environmental regulators, however, did object — even though the New London site officially is open through Dec. 23.

“New York sent the Army Corps a letter objecting to use of the New London site,” Wisker said. The marina agreed to use the central Long Island Sound site instead “to avoid a long, protracted appeal process,” he said.

New York state officials did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about its objections but indicated they would respond today.

Jomo Miller, spokesman for New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, said the state’s general position on dredge material has been that there must be “staged reductions of dredge material disposal in Long Island Sound over the next 30 years.”

Under the new amendment, projects seeking permits for dredging projects would have to demonstrate that they have sought to find alternate means of disposing of the dredge materials before they could obtain a permit to dump at the central or westerly Long Island Sound sites.

"People would have to first exhaust all the alternatives," Perkins of the EPA's dredging team said.

Wisker said before permits were granted for the Pine Island Marina project, the contractor was required to determine whether the dredge material could be reused on land rather than dumped offshore, the practice being advanced by the EPA's proposed new rule.

As part of that process, Wisker said samples of the dredge material were tested for contaminants.

About 7,000 cubic yards showed elevated levels of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and must be capped with clean material after disposal.

The rest of the material did not contain contaminants.

But, like many marinas, Pine Island has no open land to store dredge material to let it dry out before it can be placed at an eroded beach, marsh or other area, Wisker said.

"They considered it, but they didn't have a way to handle it," Wisker said.

The amended rule incorporates the Final Long Island Sound Dredge Materials Management Plant released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Jan. 11, and would meet the goal of reducing or eliminating dredge material disposal in the sound, the EPA said in news release.

New York does not consider the newly announced amendment to be sufficient.

"We look forward to continued dialogue with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA and the state of Connecticut to support our shared vision for a cleaner Long Island Sound," Miller, the New York DEC spokesman, said.

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy

More information:

EPA's proposed amendment can be found at: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-02585. 

Two public hearings will be conducted on the proposed amendment:

 From 5 to 7 p.m. March 1 at the Port Jefferson Free Library, 100 Thompson St., Port Jefferson, N.Y. Registration will begin at 4:30 p.m.

From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. March 2 at the University of Connecticut’s Stamford Campus, auditorium 2, second floor, 1 University Place, Stamford. Registration will begin at 3 p.m.

 Comment will be received through March 25. The EPA said it plans to incorporate the amendment by May 10. 

For information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/dredged-material-management-long-island-sound.