Bowers, Del. - Local agencies protect the Murderkill River, but the water isn’t deep enough for the rescue boats to go out at all times of day. Local and state leaders are coming together for a solution.
Mayor Ada Puzzo says the Murderkill River hasn’t been dredged in about a decade. She says at low tide the channel is as shallow as a foot and a half deep. A dredge arrived about a week ago so that DNREC could begin an emergency dredging project.
The River cuts through Bowers and South Bowers. Despite it's name, local fire rescue boats and the Coast Guard Auxiliary use this channel as an outlet to protect the waterways. Mayor Puzzo calls it the bloodline of the town.
"Without this we die," Puzzo says. "It would just kill us not to have this."
Puzzo says marine rescue and fire suppression from Bowers takes care of 50 square miles of the Delaware Bay, but that shoaling threatens to kills rescue missions, like when a barge caught fire in the bay in May 2022.
"Our firemen went out there to work on that and they were in charge of the whole rescue effort of putting out the fire and it took two days," Puzzo says.
That's just one reason why dredging the Murderkill was prioritized.
Puzzo says neighbors sent hundreds of letters to lawmakers and received state funding for the $2.3 million project.
"We have commercial fishermen, we have marine rescue," Puzzo says. "We need this channel."
Once the river is dredged to a healthy 7 feet deep, the town will lay its notice about planning around shoaling to rest so that boats that both work on the water and watch over it can continue to serve Bowers.
DNREC says about 52,000 cubic yards of sand will be removed, some of which will be used to replenish South Bowers Beach, where the agency says the shoreline has been eroding.
Puzzo says the town expects the project to be complete in a couple of weeks.